Annie
by lola-write-hand
Summary: Something's wrong. It's here, it's now-it's in his cold blue eyes. It's a spirit, a formidable, frightening spirit of everything he wants for me. Everything he's willing to take, to give to me.I don't understand it, and I don't expect to ever truly know
1. one

PROLOUGE

"I know you're with my husband. And when Ben finds out, there will be consequences." Harper said, wringing her hands. Juliet Burke only stared, blue eyes wide and innocent. Harper looked up, and turned away, either of shock or disgust or of both.

"What?" Juliet asked.

"Ben told you that you were his." Harper whispered. "I know why."

Juliet sat forward. "Why?"

"Oh….don't do that." Harper massaged her throbbing temples. "You look just like her."

"Like who?" Now Juliet was intrigued.

Harper paused, glancing at Juliet. Her amber eyes were calm and sober. "Annie…Annie Goodspeed. Don't tell me you've never heard about Annie Goodspeed."

Benjamin Linus walked in the door abruptly. Harper cried aloud, dropping her tea cup onto the paisley sofa. Juliet only shut her eyes.

"Juliet doesn't know who Annie Goodspeed is. I do not know who Annie Goodspeed is. I suggest you end this conversation- I have something to discuss with Juliet later." Ben's deep set blue eyes bulged, unblinking, at Juliet. He set the basket of clothes on the countertop and walked out the door.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

one

It was a humid day on the docks. The sun shined hot and distant, the palmetto fronds dipping over the island's beach. A submarine had surfaced at the end of the long runway, and a congregation of people were slowly making their way down, mouths agape, some with wonder, some with bedraggled ness.

It was here that Roger Linus was prepared to start all over. Armed with only his memories and his son, Benjamin, the middle aged man gazed up at the sign exclaiming "NAMASTA" and paced over to the log in booth. A line of women in grey jumpsuits beamed, crowning each entering person with a lei of twisted grey vines and small grey irises.

"Linus?" asked a Dharma secretary, glancing over her clipboard.

"Yes." Roger said, trying to hide his implacability. "Yes- Roger Li-"

"Here you are." Said the woman, handing him a clean cut uniform, complete with his name and title: workman.

"Janitor?"

The woman half nodded, obviously taken by matters of more importance. Ben shut his eyes, anticipating his father's reaction. In the distance, he saw a young girl his age watching him with interest. Ben looked up at his father, and back to the girl who gave him a look of unfeigned sympathy.

"Experiments, studies- I was told we'd be changing the world!...I'm didn't come here to clean up after you." Roger said angrily. He flexed a hand on his young son, who only glanced at his feet and adjusted his wire rimmed glasses. The girl in the distance bit her lip abruptly with empathy.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Linus. If another position opens, you're eligible to apply." The woman looked up at him for a moment, paid no attention, only marking off notes in her clipboard. Flushed with anger, Roger Linus led Benjamin away, accidentally knocking him into the young girl, sending Ben's glasses flying into a patch of freshly mowed dharma grass. The girl stared for a moment, and then rushed over to pick up the glasses. The lady that accompanied her smiled brightly at Roger.

"Roger Linus?" She enquired.

Roger pasted on a fake smile and replied. "Yes." The puzzled expression on his face motivated him. "Have we met before?"

"I'm Olivia…Horace Goodspeed's wife."

Roger took a drawn out sigh, letting his anger float into it. "Marvelous." He said drunkedly as Benjamin groped blindly for his glasses in the grass. "Oh stop, Ben." He commented. "Kids these days-"

Olivia Goodspeed laughed, then led him on a tour around the Dharma unit, still unaware of his position as janitor. The little girl who had knocked into Ben now handed him his glasses.

"You're blind without those." She stated, a look of concern on her face.

"No..no I'm not." Ben replied shyly, shoving them on his face gracelessly. "I just…can't see.. Why do you care anyway?"he mumbled.

The girl smiled. "You forgot to thank me."

Ben blushed. "Thanks…." He glanced at his feet once again, seeing hers, clad in grey flip flops and orange toe nail polish. "So who are you anyway?"

"Annie." She said simply. "You?"

"Ben."

"I particularly like that name."

"Mmhm." Ben mumbled, hiding his intrigue.

"Yes. I hope we'll be in class together. Mrs. Goodspeed is the teacher- the lady who was with me. What grade are you going into, Ben?"

Ben pulled himself out of his gaze and answered-"sixth grade."

Annie's face lit up. "Me too!"

"Benjamin!" The call of Ben's father sent him into a pit of despair again- although, as he glanced over his shoulder at the blonde bubbly girl who smiled, he felt he was taking an orb of light into the deep pit with him.


	2. two

**two**

_lola-write-hand_

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2

"So, once water is added to the bicarbonate we will get our very own volcanic reaction." Explained Mrs. Goodspeed to the class of uniformed Dharma students. Her blonde bob flounced as she poured water over the model volcano. Benjamin Linus watched as foamy white lava surmounted the paper Mache mold. The girl sitting next to him raised her hand.

"Yes, Annie?"

"Did that ever happen to the volcano on this island?"

"Exactly, Annie." Olivia Goodspeed cooed. "But that was a very, very long time ago."

A few groans overtook the room as the feigned volcano spluttered out lame foam streaks.

"Now, I know it's not lava, but-" Olivia paused as sirens filled the room. Calmly, she looked around and instructed the children to take cover. Grabbing for her rifle she pointed to the back door, nodding to Annie.

"Annie- lock the back door please."

Ben merely sat, blue eyes vacant and wide, watching the scene unfold in front of him. Through the windows he could see dazed faculty with rifles shuffling around the courtyard.

"Ben- come on, honey- you've got to move." The kind voice of Mrs. Goodspeed bombarded Ben, and he felt a warm hand wrap around his arm and tug him to the corner. Annie let go and gave a nervous smile. " Don't worry- it's just the hostiles." She looked outside for reconciliation. "You'll be ok."

The sound of an explosion rocked their ears. Ben gasped as he heard cries from outside- not explicably sure which side they derived from. He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses and looked silently from Annie to Mrs. Goodspeed to the windows above, as the vaulted windows flew down and bolted. Ben could feel his heart drumming in his chest, and as he looked down, he felt more at ease- for Annie's hand rested on his own.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Juliet's mouth quivered, partially in fear, partially in sadness, as Harper dabbed a paper napkin at the tea spill on the rug. Ben had taken her to her doom, just as Harper had predicted, showing her to Goodwin, a wooden stake through his heart. His face was as fleshy stone, a lover lifeless and cold.

_Take as much time as you need, Juliet. _

Now Juliet tearfully sat on the floor, cradling her knees in her arms. Harper knew, and no tears pricked at her eyes, only a soft sigh of a tired housewife. With meticulous nature, she dotted the stain and quickly walked into the kitchen as though she had learned her husband had picked up another stray woman.

Ben had intensfully explained to Juliet her place on the island. He had informed her who she was, and who she belonged to._Ben._

_You're mine._

Juliet shook the thought from her mind, trying to force tears of grievance over Goodwin's death- out her eyes. None came. Only the thought of what Harper had said.

"You look just like her."


	3. three

**three**

_lola-write-hand_

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3

Young Ben Linus stroked the pure white fur of the albino rabbit perched on his chest. With every passing breath, the rabbit raised up and down, its pink eyes blinking stoically in the bar of yellow light cascading from the cracked door. Ben could hear the muffled light conversation in the living room turn to furious anger. The argument was between Horace Goodspeed and Roger.

"I heard you ran into a little trouble-" Horace began.

"We're driving back from the plane and we hear this huge explosion. Next thing I know, there's a siren wailing-"

"Roger, calm down."

Ben cracked open the door, rabbit poised in his palm. He saw the laid back Horace and his drunken father, waving his arms about in constricted anger.

"-and we're driving in the middle of a shootout!"

Horace sighed. "We're having some skirmishes with the natives-"

"What do you mean natives?" Roger snapped.

"Well, we're not exactly sure who they are." Horace shrugged, adjusting the cuff of his jumpsuit.

"This isn't what I signed up for." Roger spurned a beer can across the floor, groping for another one. Horace humbly looked at him in condemnation.

"Roger, I did you a favor, man-"

The pop of another beer can caused Ben to shut his eyes in agony. His father would be out of control after the fourth can.

Horace continued. "You were having trouble finding work- and don't forget about Ben- he's getting a quality education-"

"I don't give a damn about his education." Roger sneered "If I'm gonna get shot, I want hazard pay. I want another 30 grand."

Horace offered his hands as Roger slipped down on the rug into drunkenness. "Calm down, man-"

"And don't try to tell me you don't have it, you hear me?" cried Roger. "Get out of my house."

An abrupt shut of the door roused Ben, as he heard a knock at the window. Glancing at it, the image of his mother materialized at the glass panes- her features fair, her eyes sharing the same crystal blue as his- her hair a fairytale shade of blonde. With a gasp, Ben fell over, shocked, knocking over more furniture than what his father could take out after five beers. He heard the door open again, and his father's shadow loomed over him menacingly.

"I thought I told you to go to bed." He croaked, the hangover already running its course on him. Ben nodded mechanically and shut the door in front of him. Glancing back at the window, he only saw the edges of the palms bristling by on cool night winds. Seeing the tears at the bottom of his eyes, Ben spotted his sanctuary-possessed object: the ivory photo frame of his parents on a picnic in the park seven thousand days ago. His mother, fair and floaty, smiled, and his father, masculine and responsible looking, held her, her blonde wavy hair tangled around his neck and arms in the Portland air. There was one thing missing from the picture: Ben.

A train of thought passed through his mind, as he realized that his father, a drunk, and his mother, dead, both were much better off without him, and that picture proved it.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"I made it for you." Annie beamed, shoving a box the shade of forget-me-not blue into Ben's twiggy arms. A white ribbon was loosely tied around it.

"Why?" Ben asked.

Annie smiled, and that was convincing enough.

The two children sat on the swings, the orb of day sinking deeper into the sky. Annie bit her lip in anticipation, as Ben shed the box's cover. Inside the box, two dolls smiled up at the world. Amatively carved, they took the shape of a boy and a girl. Ben retrieved the boy doll, clad in painted blue overalls and a Sharpe induced smiley face.

"It's us." Annie explained. She pointed to the girl doll, wearing a blue dress. "That's me." She said. Taking the boy doll, she glanced up at Ben. He looked across to her, a small smile daring his face. "Now we never have to be away from each other." Ben held the doll in his hand, feeling a euphoria he had never known: acceptance.

"Happy Birthday, Ben." Annie said simply.

A heartfelt 'thanks' was Ben's reply.

"You're welcome."

After a few long moments of silence, Ben spoke. "Do you think we'll be away from each other, Annie? Truly?" He spoke to her, yet he looked at the doll.

"My mother has been telling me things." Annie said. "We may be parted. But only for a little while."

"The hostiles?" Ben theoried inaudibly.

"I don't know." Replied the precocious girl. "Maybe. Daddy says there's a war coming. He says he can feel it in the wind. In the island." A gust of wind swept through the Other's community, switching gears on the creaking teeter totter in the distance.

Going inside, Ben found his father crashed out on the sofa, surrounded by empty beer cans labeled with the dharma insignia. As he began to take off his father's shoes, Roger Linus stirred. Groggily, he reached for the beer can, stationed next to Annie's ribboned box.

"It's your birthday." He stated. Ben said nothing. "-Sorry I forgot…" he took a swig of beer. "Kind of hard to celebrate on the day you killed your mom." Roger added coldly. "She was just 7 months pregnant, we went for a hike…and you- you had to come early…So now, she's gone, and I'm stuck on this island…."he looked up at Ben- "With you."

Ben's lip quivered, as his father sighed, laying back into the chair. "Happy Birthday, Ben." Tears pricked at Ben's eyes, and he felt a surge of anger rise up in him, as he rushed out the door and into the jungle. Annie, who still hung on the swing, stood up abruptly and followed her friend, for a perpetually grinning doll simply could not substitute Ben.


	4. four

**four**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

4

Juliet threw the last tissue in the wastebasket. Harper had fallen asleep on the couch, and after trying to get past the first dull pages of the book from the book club, Juliet had almost lost her mind. Something plagued her. For once, she felt like what many people she had accredited mentally unstable had said, she now felt.

Someone was there. Someone was reaching out to her.

Harper stirred, and Juliet knew it was time to leave. Pulling a blanket over Harper's rising shoulders, she left.

The air on the island at night was blissfully humid and thick, like moist velvet. Pushing it behind her like a graceful curtain, Juliet no longer craved a celing above her. And, although weary from crying, Juliet laid down on the freshly cut grass to look up at the stars. They were distant- cold. Like someone she knew. She closed her eyes, ready for rest, when she heard footsteps in the grass. She turned around, sure of who it was.

"Harper, you fell asle-" Juliet stopped.

It was Ben.

"Hello, Juliet." He said mechanically. "May I join you?"

The thought of Ben Linus lying out beneath the stars almost brought a smile to Juliet's face. Almost. Instead, she nodded reluctantly and slowly lay back down.

"I used to love it out here." Ben said, to no one in particular. Juliet gazed over to him. He looked at her. "But there were more impor..tan…t…..things." Ben almost paused as he looked Juliet in the eyes- the intensity of those blue orbs were shattering, catastrophic, wild. He looked back up at the stars. "Stars shine with guilt. They're white dwarfs who have engulfed the planets in thier hemispheres- grown to red giants, and then slowly burned out. And they did it all for what? To shine? They may be beautiful, Juliet. But they're nothing but what they've consumed. And they shine as stars do." He closed his shiny eyes.

Juliet took in a breath. "But they still are beautiful."

"Beauty is as fate: fickle."

Juliet felt a boulder in her throat as she asked- "Did you believe that, Ben? Did you believe that before you killed everyone?"

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"Ben- wait!" Annie cried, running through the jungle. Twigs snapped on her legs and across her face, and her lip was bleeding. "Ben!"

Ben stopped at the sonic gates and she caught up to him.

"Ben….what…are…you…doing?" She panted.

"I'm sick of this." Ben said plainly.

Annie's mouth gaped, as she realized what he was about to do. "You can't, Ben."

"Yes, I can. You're starting to sound like everyone else. I can, Annie. I always can."

Retrieving an access code written on a slip of paper, Ben entered the code. The whir of the sonic fence stopped, and he walked through.

"Where are you going?" She called, tears in her eyes.

"Away!"

Annie hesitated, and then head butted through the field, hoping not to get electrocuted. She was successful.

"Then I'm coming with you." Annie said, determined. She took his hand, bringing a smile to his face. "Let's leave. For a little while."

Ben nodded, and they took off through the woods. Anger led Ben through the dark jungle, and hope and love led Annie.

"Do you think we'll reach the hostile's camp?" She asked him.

"I don't know." He said. "I met one."

Annie was intrigued. "You did?"

"Yeah. He told me to be patient."

"Patient?" The two stopped walking.

Ben opened his mouth to tell her, but then hesitated. Her parents were parts of the head of the Dharma initiative. He couldn't tell her, even though she was his greatest friend. He only shrugged, one hand entwined in Annie's, one had clutching a stick poking the blind darkness in front of them. Silence and footsteps overtook them as they came to a passing in the jungle. There, they sprawled out beneath the stars.

"This is…" Annie searched for words. "Beautiful." She giggled, looking up at the blinking stars. Ben looked over to her, a laugh almost crossing his lips. Almost.


	5. five

**

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**

five

_lola-write-hand_

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5

"Ben…Ben!"

Ben sat up and saw Mrs. Goodspeed's face, obviously angry. "Care to join us, Benjamin?"

Ben nodded, the rows of teenagers in front of him snickering. He looked over at Annie, who gave a reassuring nod and looked forward.

They were still in the desks they had learned in as children. Now, almost sixteen, Ben and Annie still sat together in the same desks. Annie was at the top of her class, her nose always in a book- and although boys teased her for being so pretty but being no 'fun', Ben kept the bond with her they had shared in childhood. They still often ran out to the jungle passing, just to sleep under the stars.

Ben awkwardly adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses, as the dismissal bell rang. They both gathered their books and turned to leave.  
"Ben?" The voice of Olivia Goodspeed rang out. Ben turned to Annie, who smiled. "I'll wait for you." She shut the door, leaving Ben to fend for himself.

"Benjamin….Linus." Mrs. Goodspeed spoke. "I wish to talk to you on account of the hostiles." At this, Ben furrowed his brow. "What?"

"I wish to talk to you on the account of the hostiles. The following conversation never took place." Mrs. Goodspeed looked distant. "Richard will meet you in the jungle, tomorrow night, at the passing. He needs to discuss something with you.."

Ben stared at her. "I'm not involved with the hostiles." He lied coldly.

A horrible silence slit the room. "Do you want me to tell them you no longer wish to associate with them?"

Ben looked horrified. "Mrs. Goodspeed-"

"Yes, then?" Ben stared in horror as she picked up a transceiver. "Alright."

"No!"

Mrs. Goodspeed feigned confusion. "Oh?"

"No- no, tell them I'll be there."

"Thank you, Mr. Linus. That's all."

Ben turned to leave, when Mrs. Goodspeed added-"Oh, and Ben?"

"Yes?"

"Don't bring Annie along with you."

* * *

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

* * *

"I did what I did." Ben remarked to Juliet, still under the stars.

"So, you just wiped out everyone?" Juliet asked. "Just like that?"

"Oh..I didn't do it alone." He recalled, sickeningly humble.

Juliet paused, and turned to the ignorant stars. "Wasn't there anyone you wanted to spare?"

Ben sighed, thinking. "I regret eliminating Horace. His genius with biotechnology could have worked to our advantage. Other than that- no."

Juliet bit her lip. "So…..no friends?" She felt a chord slip somewhere, and Ben was silent for a long moment.

"Is that so hard to believe, honestly?" Ben's frigid voice cut the darkness like a knife through butter.

Juliet only shut her eyes. "no." she whispered, inaudibly.


	6. six

**six**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

_6_

Richard Alpert balanced on a boulder overlooking the Dharma community. His legs flounced off the edge of the cliff, pebbles falling to the valley below, illuminated in all shades of green- the shadows over low sailing clouds creating small puddles of blue. The only thing ruining the image was the Dharma initiative, like some vile machine, churning out to the west.

"Richard." A familiar voice awoke the native, and he turned around to see Annie. Her entire athletic form was scratched and her Titain hair was sprawled around her face wildly. She was still in her Dharma uniform and she had shed her shoes on the way up the hill.  
Richard, surprised, fired back. "Annie- you're not supposed to be here."

"I heard you were going to meet Ben here."

"Yes."

Annie's brown eyes shot his. "Why won't you tell me what's going on?"

"Because it's none of your business."  
Annie crossed her arms. "It's my mother's business."

"Your mother has no idea…." Richard stopped, hesitating. Annie's face was already flushed pink, and he knew Ben would be on the way.

"Leave! I have this place surrounded by snipers, and we don't want them thinking I'm in any sort of trouble with you."

Annie looked horrified. "You're not going to hurt Ben, are you?"

Richard perceived into her eyes. An intricate, true concern was embedded in them.

"No. Now, go home, Annie."

The fifteen year old girl read the young man's pleading face, and quickly turned and ran. Minutes later, Ben appeared through the deep vegetation, slicing through vines. He wiped his sweaty brow and froze, seeing Richard in person.

"Mr. Linus." Richard stood and walked over to him.

"It's B-B-Ben….sir." Ben stuttered sheepishly.

"Yes." Richard studied Ben. He looked the same as when he was a child- innocent, curious, defiant. The same wire-rimmed glasses occupied his face above lively watery eyes- he was taller now, awkward, and fidgety. But somehow, Richard knew, this youth would one day lead them to victory against Dharma. Richard clutched Ben's shoulder. "Do you believe in fate, Ben?"

Ben timidly shook his head. "N-no, sir."

"Fate- karma, dogma. That's what Dharma's all about." Richard said, showing him the valley of Dharma below. "But I- I believe in chance. I believe in a few years, with a bit of training, we will have a chance to take back this valley- and all in it."

Ben gulped. "Ok."

"And you know who I had in mind to help us?"

Ben looked up at Richard, who smiled behind dark lined eyes.

"You." Richard said. "You're the perfect helper, Ben. A young man like you will make his mark on the Others…By honorably sealing the death of the entire Dharma initiative, we can finally take back what is ours."

Ben looked frightened, but then, seeing the valley open before him, smiled slightly. His next words were intense, rushed, and robotic. "When?"

"Eight years." Replied Richard. Ben's shoulders dropped in disappointment. Eight years. He would be 23. Such a long wait for such a zealous cause.

"Don't worry." Richard said. "You go back there, and be ready. Everyday, be looking for us. I'll send you another message immediately."

Ben stared, wide-eyed, at Richard. "But how will I-"

"You'll know." Richard said. "Trust me, Ben….You'll know."

4815162342

As Ben stumbled down the forested hill, passionate excitement filled his chest. Everyone would be gone- his lousy father, the annoying 'Namasta!'s, the brainwashing school. It would all be eliminated.

And then there was Annie.

Ben stopped at a clearing in the jungle and reached into his knapsack for the wooden doll. It smiled up at him in the dark night, above the waving long grasses.

_Now we never have to be away from each other._

He wondered if she had still treasured the doll of him. He knew it was childish, but he couldn't help smiling back at the doll. No matter what changed, this doll would always be the same. Annie would always be there- smiling at him when no one else did. He felt a surge of emotion in his chest- a shocking, unfamiliar longing for the creator of the doll. He wanted her with him- to lay in the clearing with him…to be too close to him.

Ben shook the thought from his head. With a rushed anticipation, the teenager shoved the doll back in the bag tenderly and ran home.

**LOST4815142342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"I had a childhood." Recalled Ben Linus stoically at the table with Juliet. "It was a rather tragic one, too."

"Please tell." Juliet pleaded.

"I'd rather not- there are more important issues and assets at hand. First off, you informed Harper that we needed to run a trial on the immune system of pregnant mothers on the island..Furthermore, the survivors of the oceanic- Locke excluded- need to-"

Juliet cut him off. "Ben."

Ben looked up from his file and pasted his blue eyes on her. "Yes?" He asked impatiently, but dazedly.

"Ben- please. The childhood?"

"Which childhood?"

"Yours."

Ben's face fell. He removed his spectacles swiftly, and gazed down at the file. "Juliet, I-"

"Please. You killed Goodwin-"

"I didn't kill Goodwin!" He exclaimed, standing up at the table. The pen in his hand flew out the window. His eyes bored into hers.

"You're responsible for his death." Juliet whispered. "You owe me this." Tears pricked at her pleading eyes as Ben sat down slowly, his eyes vacant.

"I hate my past. I abhor it more than anything. If you persist on talking about it, we'll have a discussion on the initial causes of Goodwin's death." Ben said swiftly, putting his glasses back on. "You won't wish to hear it, Juliet. A puncture wound isn't a particularly pleasant passage of death."

--

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**lola**


	7. seven

**seven**

_lola-write-hand_

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7

From the jungle, fifteen-year old Ben made his way back to the Dharma community. Slashing through deep vines, he finally saw the cozy few acres of the suburbs in the middle of the immense valley. Curfew had already rung, and the street lights were attracting bugs over the suburban sidewalks.

Annie was on the swing. She kicked the small wood chips and looked up at the moon. She gave a weak sigh and hunched her shoulders, so that her long brown hair reached her hips.

"Annie!" Annie heard a distant voice. It was none other than the voice of her good friend Benjamin. He was giddily running down the hill, and she laughed at the sight of him.

"Where have you been?" She asked, as he reached her. "Curfew rang an hour ago."

"So that explains why you're out here." Ben replied sarcastically.

Annie smiled. "I thought a polar bear ate you or something."

"Why are you on the swings?"

"I just felt like swinging." Annie said.

"May I join you?" Ben asked. Annie wrinkled her freckled nose. "Stop sounding so formal, Ben….and what if I said no?"

"Then I would challenge you to a swing off."

"Like old times?" Annie asked playfully.

"Like old times."

The two teenagers sat on the swings. They both pushed off, and churned against the wind. They soared high, higher, higher, until the swing set began to shift.  
"I don't think these were made for teenagers!" Annie cried.

Ben laughed. "Then let go- ONE, TWO, THREE!"

The two let go of their swings, and soared through the air like freed birds. With a thud, they both landed dazedly in the grass. The world spun before them, and the cloudy stars smiled down on the Dharma community. Annie laughed in the grass, and Ben grinned, seeing her ecstatic face. Gradually, her tone grew serious.

"Do you ever think we'll leave this island?" She asked. She rocked up and hugged her knees to her chest. Ben leaned on his elbows.

"Do you want to leave?"

"Oh…I don't know. Not right now. I like it here." Annie stood up. "The wind is beautiful- and when it rains…" she closed her eyes. "God is in the rain, Ben. He is…I'd gladly leave school- everyone there…but I'd miss the rain." Her brown eyes sparkled and she held out her long arms as a drop began to fall. Soon, the rain fell, like bullets, over the Dharma community. It soaked the ground, and made music on the wind chimes and gutters. And as Ben reached for her hand and pulled her to the ground, she could still feel it everywhere- like a wonderful, marvelous disease. And as he leaned over her, resting on the hand positioned by her head, Ben kissed her. And the rain grew numb for a long moment, until he let go.


	8. eight

**eight**

_lola-write-hand_

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8

"The heat is a staggering 102- so all Dharma initiative members need wear their sun lotion to protect all those harmful UV rays!" The weather announcer chirped brightly on the intercom in the classroom, over the hum the burping electric fans. "Also, hats are suggested, as well as sun glasses- keep up the good work!...Oh, and –"

"Namasta." The teenagers in class all moaned in unison. The transceiver radio blinked off and Mrs. Goodspeed waved an oriental fan over her flushed face and frizzy blonde bulk.

"The air conditioner….," she panted. "Is broken. I think-" She swat at a mosquito. "I think we should have class outside today, yes?"

Everyone cheered.

Sitting out in the grass, Annie looked through a book of Morse code.

"That'll be helpful." Ben said, sitting down next to her.

"I don't know…" Annie trailed off, ignoring Ben's sarcasm. "I have a feeling it will one day."

"Yes." Ben looked towards the tree line. The wind rustled through the vegetation and thick white fog hovered above it. Suddenly, he spotted a figure, running through the jungle. The figure emerged, limping, speaking some sort of gibberish to herself. She fell to the ground, crawling, reaching out- released a blood curling scream from her slashed lips and finally collapsed in the grass. Mrs. Goodspeed, although advancing in years, ran over to the victim. Annie, Ben, and others followed and gathered around her. Out cold, the girl whimpered like a dog enveloped in a terrible nightmare. Her eyes opened abruptly and she cried aloud. "Le bateau est allé ! Le bateau est descendu sous les vagues! Le bateau est descendu! Il est descendu! Il est descendu!" Like an alarm, she repeated it wildly, her brown crinkled hair sticking to her face with sweat. "Aidez-moi, sil vous plait…" Mrs. Goodspeed looked up with haste and spotted Ben.  
"Get the doctor, Ben….Hurry!"

The hysterical girl rested her head back on the ground and blacked out.

Her name was Danielle. That was all that Mrs. Goodspeed, armed with the Dharma doctor and linguist, could draw from the girl, who looked about thirteen. She spat up salt water and blood, and was dotted with black and blue Pangaea bruises all over her abdomen. Deep pinpricks of blood dashed her arms, and she couldn't stop sobbing hysterically in French.

"J'mapple est Danielle Rousseau." She finally said, wiping her egg-sized eyes on her torn bloody sleeve. "Aidez-moi. Le bateau le coulè, chacun est mort." She sat up and looked around the sterile white room. "Ou suis-je?" She asked.

"She said her ship went down….that everyone is dead…." The linguist jogged his memory. "She asked where she was." He thought for a long moment, and then approached the girl. "Parlez-vous anglais, mademoiselle?"

"Non."

He sighed. "She doesn't speak English."

Olivia Goodspeed sat down. "Should we inform the board?"

"And have her thrown out?" Horace walked in. "They'll surely think she's one of the hostiles. She looks like one of the hostiles." He looked her up and down. "How do we know she's not one?"

"Some of the scientists studying down by the Looking Glass saw wreckage 24 hours ago. That's just about the time she came trudging into the camp." The linguist chimed in. "What she's saying is specific- and the hostiles certainly don't speak French."

"Well, then, we can't leave her out there in the jungle." Horace said. He looked to his wife, who smiled. "Annie.."

The doctor scratched his balding head. "Your daughter?"

Olivia smiled. "Annie is particularly gifted with educating. She'll have Danielle taught proper English in no time. We'll take her in until she gets situated and fully understandable."

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"Boat."

"Yes."

"Tree."

"Yes."

"House."

"Yes- well done, Danielle." Annie applauded, holding up another card with the Dharma sign etched into it. Danielle bit her lip. "Dogman Ineetive?"

"Almost. Dharma Initiative. That is where we are, Danielle. Do you know where you're from?"

"France."

"Good!" Annie cooed. "And how old am I?"

"Twenty-one."

"And how old are you, Danielle?"

"Twenty….Can we eat lunch, now?"

Annie smiled. The two girls sat across from each other in the grass in front of the swing set. Although Annie was deemed gifted with linguistics, Danielle had proved a rather slow learner and had taken almost seven years to learn adequate English. Still, she could speak and comprehend, and the two had become close, since Annie was an only child and Danielle had none but her.

Ben walked down the sidewalk. Annie smiled shyly. Since that rainy night six years ago, things hadn't been quite the same. Often, Annie caught him gazing at her a second too long, and sometimes she felt herself guilty of the same crime. They hadn't distanced themselves from one another, and, although Ben had inherited the humble post of workman as his father had, and was busy, they still found time to swing or sleep under the stars- Danielle included.

"Ben." Danielle said.

Ben smiled politely. "Yes, Danielle?"

"You is funny, Ben. Work eez that vay!" Danielle pointed to the Tempest, overlooking the valley. "You going to jungle."

Ben stopped, stepping off the sidewalk and out of the Dharma suburb. "Oh…." He paused. "I was sent on a special mission today, Danielle." Ben spoke to her simply, as though she were a small child. "I'll be back."

Danielle grinned. "Annie vill miss you."

Annie opened her mouth in a look of shock. Ben only looked up to the heavens and changed the subject. "Nice weather we're having. The day is practically flawless."

With that, he walked into the jungle. As soon as he disappeared behind the vegetation, Annie shoved Danielle.

"Danielle- what do you think you were doing back there?"

Danielle giggled. "You think me child, Annie- because I cannot speak flawless engleesh. But I tell you this- I be not as _entellègent_ as you…..but I'm not stupid."

Annie's eyes widened and she grinned. "Danielle!" Danielle only shrugged her shoulders. Annie shook her head and cursed silently in French- for she had picked up a bit of Danielle as well.

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"Richard." The voice of Ben Linus awoke Richard Alpert from his post. Richard rubbed his eyes and abruptly grabbed his rifle. "Mr. Ben Linus. I'm terribly embarrassed that you caught me sleeping in my post. Forgive me." He smiled and walked with Ben.

"I told you I wanted to discuss some things with you, Dr. Alpert." Ben said stoically.

"Yes, yes. It'll be a year from now till Judgment day, Ben. One more year- you think you can wait?"

"I've worried that I couldn't everyday since I was sixteen." Ben stated. Richard laughed. "Good to be afraid of burning out, than to be afraid to lighten up….Now- you wanted to discuss with me a few things?"

"Yes. The Purge is to be commissioned in exactly a year." Richard nodded. Ben continued. "I was looking into the possibility that I may be able to….spare a few of the Dharma initiative."

Richard's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"Would I joke about this kind of thing?"

"Same as everything else- never."

Ben brushed off the small insult, and went on. "I would like to salvage one member of the Dharma initiative: a close friend of mine."

"Are you wanting to take him prisoner- or is he willing to fight on our side?" Richard questioned.

"She has no idea what's about to happen. I would like her to not be included in the Purge, so that she may see what new opportunities arise from this."

Richard stopped walking. "You could say the same about everyone in that valley, Ben. But we can't just take them all prisoner. It won't work- it just can't work."

Ben blinked. "I just don't want her to die, Dr. Alpert."

"Ah." Richard wisely understood. "What's her name?"

Ben hesitated. He finally uttered, "Annie Goodspeed."

Dr. Alpert's dark eyes widened. Anyone but her. Anyone but Annie Goodspeed.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** _Hope you enjoy my story! It's such a fun thing to research and write! Ben is my favorite character, and when I saw 'The Man behind the curtain' I was pumped to write a story about the theory of Annie- I think she'll come in as a very important aspect in season 5 and beyond- TOMMOROW IS THE SEASON FOUR FINALE! woot woot! :D _

_Anyway, I'm digressing here, so please leave reviews, comments, critisism, thoughts- and THANK YOU FOR READING, MY LOVELY READERS!_

_ lola_


	9. nine

**nine**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

9

"DON'T MOVE!" The almost insane unison of voices hit Olivia Goodspeed at all sides. Olivia quickly dropped her gun, her shaking hand holding the sling where her baby slept peacefully at her waist. "Don't shoot!" She cried. "My baby!" Olivia began to sob, and as she huddled to the ground, she saw bare legs and torn savage clothes.

It was the hostiles.

Olivia released a blood curling scream, sending several confused finches out of their perch and off into the jungle like blown dandelions.

"No! No!" She cried, holding the infant close to her, who began to stir. She opened an eye, seeing a pair of twine sandals and worn masculine feet in front of her. Before she could see her captor, she felt a cold slap across the face that drove her into the red jungle clay.

"Don't you….ever….scream….like that…again." The voice cleared gruffly. Another pair of feet joined him and helped her up. The baby began to cry, and Richard Alpert silently seized her from the muddy sling and cradled her gently. Olivia could feel a mad maternal urge to slice the man with the dark eyes in half, but she held herself back.

"Please- please….please give me Annie."

Richard looked up at her with wild shifting eyes. The man who accompanied him laughed forcefully cruel. "Annie? I'm afraid Annie's coming with us. You tell the Dharma Initiative that if they ever send people into the- "

"That's enough." The man with the dark eyes handed the sleeping baby back to Olivia. With a teary smile, she mouthed. "Thank…you."

Richard looked back at the hostiles with guns. They all looked at him suspiciously.

"You'll be paying us for that for awhile, woman." He said abruptly and Olivia's face fell. "Yes. Yes. Whatever you want, is yours. Except Annie."

"No. We don't want Annie. But we do need you to keep a secret for us- we need you to be a messenger for the Hostiles."

"A…m-messenger?"

"Yes. If you do what we say, we won't bother the Dharma Initiative for 20 years. On our word, we swear it. But if you fail to cooperate, we have the manpower and the strategy to take out the entire Dharma Initiative in 20 minutes. Do you understand?"

Olivia nodded softly. "Yes- Yes."

"Good." Richard said. "Now- we first have a mission for you in Portland, Oregon…."

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"How is Danielle coming?" Ben asked, throwing a pebble into the estuary. It clinked off the water again and again, until it found it's proper place and was picked up by the current. Annie laid out on a rock, bare arms and legs sprawled on its salty exterior. She looked up, gathered her knees to her chest, and stared at the water.

"She's doing really brilliant. She's begun to speak to Danny, that cute boy she couldn't stop cooing over in French over by the beach the other day."

Ben furrowed his brow. "I thought she was talking about molecular physics."

Annie laughed, and lunged her arm back to hurl a rock into the water. "You should try to follow along more." She stopped, and inspected the pebble. "Why did you ask me to come, anyway Ben? Danielle was disappointed she couldn't tag along."

"I have important things to discuss with you."

"Stop talking like that." Annie said softly, uncondemingly. "You talk to me like I'm a stranger. I'm your friend." She took her eyes off the water and looked at him. "You can be yourself around me, Ben."

"I am being myself."

"No." Annie wrinkled her nose cutely. "No, I don't think you are. Because if you did, you would care more about helping Danielle learn English. You would tell me why you're out in the jungle at all hours of the night- without me, I might add- and you would also want to talk to me about that night-"

"Things are about to happen, Annie."

Annie stopped. She traced her finger on the sun burned rock, and flowed her eyes up at him. "What are you talking about, Ben?"

"I need you to take my word for this. Things are going to happen, Annie. Things you could have never imagined- they will literally change you."

Annie laughed nervously. "What are you talking about, Ben?"

Ben took off his glasses and rubbed his forehead. "I can't explain- just….be prepared."

"How can I possibly be prepared for something you haven't told me about?" Annie looked at Ben, who stared at the water. "This has something to do with the hostiles, doesn't it?" Ben stared at her. "Annie- how do you-"

"It does." Annie stated. "I know Richard Alpert."

Ben gulped. "Richard?"

"Yes. Annie studied Ben's expression. "Richard helped my mother a very long time ago. He's a decent man."

"He's your enemy."

"I don't believe in enemies, Ben. They misunderstand us, we misunderstand them…But, what I really wanted to talk about, Ben-" Annie smiled. "I wanted everything to be clear about what happened-"

"Do you have your Ben doll?" Ben asked abruptly. Annie sputtered, her eyes searching the water, finally drawing back up at him. "What?"

"I asked you a question." Ben said softly. "Do you still have your Ben doll?"

"My 'Ben' doll? You mean that ridiculous doll I carved you in 6th grade?"

"Yes. That ridiculous doll. You made two- I wanted to know if you still had yours."

Annie bit her lip. She shut her eyes and looked up at the clear blue sky. For a few moments, she was silent. She finally opened her eyes, seeing seagulls floating above her. Gazing over to Ben, she saw him gaze back.

"You'd rather know about the doll than me?" She asked. "You bring me out here, to ask me about a doll?" She jumped off the rock and walked towards Ben. "You don't care about the real deal, Ben. No, no- you must see how the doll's doing." She panted. "The doll is fine. He's gathering dust. He's still smiling, in case you wanted to know. How's your Annie doll? Is she good? We should arrange for them to get together sometime." Tears leaked out her amber eyes now. Emotion filled Ben's face as he tried to find the words as Annie mumbled along. To him, Annie had always been good under pressure, nondramatic, caring, and beautiful. Now she was all but nondramatic.

"And yet, when the most important thing in front of you is waiting, you continue to incessantly come back and replay moments…" She paused, her fists balled up, "when, in reality, she's waiting right here for you, Ben. I'm here for you! I'm waiting- I've been waiting!" She ran up to him and touched his face. "Are you a statue? Do you feel nothing? Do you see nothing?! Do you see anything, Ben?..." She drew back, mouth agape. "Or are you just a doll- smiling back at me, unable to speak….unable to listen…just…unprovacatively, inexplicably, indiversibly happy?" Annie's shoulders heaved as she sobbed. Her knees dug into the moist sand and she masked her face with her long hands. Ben looked around, praying dearly that no one would see what he was about to do. With caring passion, he stood up, walked over to a crying Annie, and slid his arms under hers. Limply, he pulled her up, so that he could see her face, freckled and delicate and flushed with tears.

And then, she stopped. There was no time for tears when she saw Ben Linus' face. She felt as if she peeked into his soul. The look on his face was so caring, so loving, that she thought she was in some deranged fantasy. But as his arms wrapped around her, she realized. And as he embraced her, there was no room for dreaming- no room for space. Ben Linus held Annie Goodspeed until she forgot how to stand, and they fell down- past friendship, not far from love, but somewhere, somewhere in between.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** If you are reading this- it probably means you've read the chapter above- now be a GREAT reader and review this chapter for me! :D I really am trying to make this romance realistic and not too lurid- and I am putting a great consideration in keeping true to Ben's character (shoutout to Michael Emerson- woohooo! :D) so please tell me if you think it's getting too mushy or whatever.

I'm holding the next chapter hostage until I get at least 3 reviews! So please, review! :D

Wasn't the season finale EPIC? I think it was! So many questions that really really need to be answered- I can't wait 8 months! So I'll just keep writing this, eh?

lola


	10. ten

**ten**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

10

A call arouse Charles Widmore from his sound slumber. Reaching up his hand, the thirty-year old answered with an abrupt-"Eh?"

"Mr. Widmore?"

"Yes." Widmore grunted.

"This is Horace Goodspeed, from the Dharma Initiative."

"Oh?" Charles Widmore was now awake. "Mr. Goodspeed, glad to speak to you."

"I hope this isn't a bad time."

Widmore looked out his window at Big Ben's musty hands. The clock chimed four in the morning. Dawn was approaching at the east.

"It's not, Mr. Goodspeed. Now- my proposition."

"Yes." Horace twirled the phone cord and fidgeted with the buttons on his white lab coat. "The Dharma Initiative would be more than happy to assist with your medicinal research project."

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST481162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Ben and Annie were waiting patiently, both sitting on the plastic covered couch of Ben's cookie cutter Dharma abode. Ben's warm hand rested on Annie's cold fingers, and her wrinkled blue linen dress neatly covered their clasped hands.

Annie looked over to Ben. "It is done." She said breathlessly. Ben nodded, still trying to calm the tribal drum pounding in his chest. The door opened in perfect timing and Rousseau appeared, her face flushed with running and her smile inerasable.

"Ahnnee, Ben- Zey have done it!"

Annie stood up slowly and went to hug her friend. After they embraced, she looked her in the eyes. "You're now a- "

"Researcher? Yes! They vant me to help vith the developing!" Danielle finished. "And Danny gave me this!" She held up a small ivory music box. Annie beamed, looking back at Ben for excitement. Ben was obviously deep in thought, his eyes vacant, still unaware that Annie's hand was no longer in his own. Gazing up at them, he caught up with reality and pasted a smile on his face. "Wonderful, Danielle." He praised.

"Zey told me I vas saving the Dharma Initiative!" Rousseau said. "I vill be vorking on neighboring island a few miles away- but ve'll be back very soon!" And with that, Rousseau headed to her barracks to pack. Annie closed the door behind her.

"What happened with Horace?" Annie asked as soon as they were alone again.

"I heard he convinced a related company to pay the Dharma for research on a certain pathogen. Dharma has been very financially burdened recently." Ben said. Annie smiled, and sat down, concern on her face.

"That's not what I meant."

Ben turned to her, his blue eyes sparkling. He brushed a sweaty strand of her auburn hair behind her ears. Annie bit her lip. "What did my father say, Ben?"

"He agreed."

A look of relieved delight flushed Annie's face as she pulled Ben close to her, bestowing on him a second of bliss. Ben smiled at her lovingly, and then stoically stood up and walked to the door. "He will meet us a month from tonight, at the clearing."

"Perfect." Annie said. "And your father?"

"My father will be too drunk to know anything." Ben said grimly.

"Oh."

Ben changed the subject. "Does Danielle know?"

"I told her today." Annie said softly. "You don't mind?"

"No. No I don't." Ben replied. He reacted with a grin after Annie smiled at him playfully. Closing the door, she sulked against the sofa, perfectly happy. She played with the blue linen of her dress, reminiscing the moment she hoped would come soon, when it would be so swiftly, so easily, so lovingly, pulled off by the man who had just departed.

**LOST481162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Ben sat on the hill overlooking the Dharma suburbs. He sighed.

A month.

A month was all that remained of the people's time here. The guilt had not caught him until now, and he felt it slowly eat at him. Why did it have to be now that he was happy with his situation? Why did it have to come so soon? He was fine with everything, excluding his father, who still found time to drunkenly slouch in at 4 in the morning after a solo beer blast on the beach. Ben was even content with his position in Dharma: workman. It was humble. Not nearly as good as what he could provide for Annie, but fine for now.

He could see it work: he could see Dharma and the Hostiles coexisting. Maybe even learning to like each other. It was a fruitless delusion, but a blissful moment in this brief time of happiness.

Ben needed to talk to Robert.

The Others were setting up camp near a stream in the jungle. Driving in stakes, they hoisted up the tents and tumbled logs into a pile in the middle of it all. Robert was busy fidgeting with the transmitter, pushing various buttons and glitches- trying to get some sort of response.

"Robert!" Called a hostile from his perch. "Mr. Linus is here."

"I hope you realize this sort of thing is normal." Robert said, walking with Ben next to the creek. "Second guessing, doubts; but just trust your gut, and get through it before you have to come up here again and raising their eyebrows." He motioned to the opening through the trees, which showed a clear cut way to the Dharma suburb. "I understand your concerns. But lay low or things are going to get suspicious. Now, go home, Ben. Get some rest. Get your head on straight."

"Do you know what procedures to take when evacuating Annie?" Ben asked, distracted.

Robert scratched his head. "We were planning on just taking her through the Tempest to the Looking Glass- isn't that what you planned?"

"Yes…But there's been a change." Ben said. Robert flashed him a look of impatience. Ben only stared into his dark eyes with a look of absolute urgency.

"I need you to take her into the clearing where your people have set up camp. There's a tree right next to the stream. If you look closely you'll see a Dharma insignia that leads to a hatch. The hatch will take you to an underground cavern which will lead you to an unoccupied region of the beach. Leave her there."

"Alright, Ben." Robert replied.

"You have to promise me." Ben said. "That she won't be harmed in any way."

"She won't. I offer my word as forfeit of the price." Robert said. "And your father?-"

"Leave that to me."

Robert nodded slowly, gathering up his intent. "Now…go."

Ben headed back, hesitantly stared back at Robert, and walked quickly down the hill to the Dharma Initiative.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOSt4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Juliet Bourke gazed at Harper curiously when the manila folder was slid out in front of her. With questioning eyes, she opened it, watching Harper's shifty eyes glaze over the page.

"What is it?" Juliet asked.

"You seemed really desperate. So, I did some searching through the databases- and I finally found it….The file of Annie Goodspeed."

Juliet quickly skimmed through all the pages, before scanning the front. A small, invasive picture of the girl was paper clipped to the page, when she was about four. Her glowing amber hair and freckles complimented her lonely face and white eyelet dress.

"Born March 3rd, 1959…..on the island." Juliet gasped. "She must have been one of the only babies to be born here and survive to adulthood…She was adopted, too…So that explains why she looked nothing like her parents..."

"Yeah." Harper replied. "Keep looking- it says she was killed in the Purge."

Juliet gazed up at her. "Who wrote that? One of the Others?"

"I don't know. It just had some end notes at the last page. It seems weird that we still kept these files- I thought Ben would have had them destroyed along with everything else.."

Juliet began thumbing through for the last page- finally finding it, she spotted a scribbled note, written in haste, under another picture of Annie as a 19 year old.

_Annie Goodspeed was unfortunately killed by poison gas during the Purge of 1979. Her body was found next to her alleged lover, young Danny Neuko. Nothing more is known of her. _

"Who's 'Danny Neuko'?" Juliet enquired. Harper shrugged. "Go see if there's a file on him."

Harper sighed. "Why would anyone bother with old Dharma files?" Her eyes traced back to Juliet. "What does this have to do with our work anyway? You still have 6 mothers that need thier neurological immunities scanned-"

"Because I have a theory, Harper. And if this theory is right, I may be on the brink to discovering why all the mothers are dying. I'll save them...And I'll understand what happened to Annie."

Harper smiled. "You never take anything lightly, do you? Well, Nancy Drew: try this one- we've hit another dead end." She displayed the page. "Nothing up on Danny Neuko- even in population statistics or anything. And we know he wasn't an Other. So, we're stuck." Harper sat back in thought. Juliet gazed at the computer screen, a smile spreading her face.

"Not for long….I think…" With true determination, Juliet typed in a single name in the database.

_Danielle………Rousseau._

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** _Thanks all for the rush of comments! I'm happy I got to publish this chapter on schedule! Keep up the great work with reviewing- even if you've reviewed before I still want to know what you think of each chapter, so please review! Is it getting better- or worse?? Comments, critisism, etc, etc. This fic would be nothing without the great readers! _

_lola_

p.s- Michael Emerson+ Amazing cast+ Amazing music + LOST hiatus (EQUALS) anticipation & Fanfics, fanfics, fanfics!

We have about 240 days until LOST. : : I'll keep everyone posted.


	11. eleven

**eleven**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

11

Rousseau searched for Annie everywhere in the Dharma suburbs of the dusk. Lugging around her medical bag and luggage, Danille was prepared to leave with the medical team destined for the neighboring island.

Finally, she found her, throwing up in a wastebasket. After a few moments of nausea, Danielle quickly pulled a dazed Annie to her feet, off the vinyl tile floor of the bathroom.

"Ětes-vous bien?" She asked, concerned, without remembering to speak in English.

"No." Annie coughed. "No, I feel horrible. My stomach." She clutched her middle and fainted.

Danielle had been able to carry her friend to the bed. Setting Annie on the covers, she shook her awake.

"Annie." She whispered. "Annie-I'm leaving very soon and I must speak to you about things."

Annie opened her eyes and smiled at her friend. "Speak. And quickly, before I pass out again."

Danielle kneeled down next to her bedridden friend. "I am scared for you." A puzzled expression on Annie's face bid her to continue. "I am scared for you and Ben. Ben and you. Ze Dharma have hired me to develop dees medicine- because they're financeeally deesprate. But, I worry of you and Ben. What is to happen if Dharma is to break up, due to...feenan-ces." Danielle struggled with the last word. Annie bit her lip. Danielle brushed an auburn hair from her face and scolded herself. "I'm sorry, Ah-nee. I just vant you both to not be far away from each other."

Annie smiled. "Thank you, Danielle. I'm sure Ben and I will be fine."

"He loves you. Do you know?"

Annie opened her eyes burdenly. "Yes." She said forcibly.

"No. No you don't understand, Ah-nee. 'e loves you. If only you could see as I see. He is en amoure with you." Danielle beamed, switching to French to allongate her true meaning that she could not express in english. "You must promise me to never let 'im go. Zat type of love is very rare...Do not let it go." She stood up and kissed her friend on the cheek as a sisterly French adieu and walked out the door.

"I think it's his love that is making me ache, Danielle." Annie said, her mouth winced in pain. She laid her head to the side, a single bead of sweat, along with a tear, racing down her tan forehead and onto the peach-colored pillowcase.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Ben Linus zipped up his grey uniform jumpsuit. He patiently buttoned it over, watching his name reflected in the mirror. He adjusted his same old wire-rimmed glasses, and glanced at his watch.

Judgement day.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, the twenty-three year old caught a glimpse of the wooden doll on the kitchen table. He glanced down at it, seeing its worn smiling face. It was like a piece of frozen time, gently coated with the years following it.

Everything was arranged. Annie was to be taken to the North side of the island, and he would take care of his father. Afterwards, he would report back to the suburbs and go attend to her. It was almost too easy. Slipping the doll in his bag gently, he hoisted a crate of beer in his arms and went outside to load it in the van.

"Morning." Roger mumbled, helping Ben place the crate in the last available spot. Ben silently placed it in the van, and stood back quietly. With a tone of anger in his voice, Roger snapped. "What's the problem now? You're usually...chatty-catty in the morning."

"It's my birthday." Ben stated soberly. Roger paused and then eyes widened as he shut them in self-condemnation.

Ben continued. "I don't know why I keep fooling myself into thinking that one of these years you're actually going to remember."

Roger sighed, thinking quickly. "Well, I'll tell you what. All we gotta do this morning is run this stuff out to Pearl station." He shrugged, continuing. "Why don't we go up to the mesa- bring some beers…Have some…I don't know…father and son time?" He suggested halfheartedly. Ben ignored his reluctance and raised his eyebrows. "Alright." A small smile crossed his face as his father shut the van door.

The trek up to the top of the mesa was awkward to say the least. Roger tried to infallibly break the silence with a burst of radio, but that only led him to gaze at his son every other second in annoyance. Finally coming to the top of the mesa, overlooking the valley, he stopped and huffed in exhaust. Ben slowly removed his glasses and placed them on the dashboard.

"So who's that girl I'm always seeing you with?" Roger asked, putting the van in drive.

"Her name is Annie Goodspeed."

"You two gonna get married?" Roger asked, avoiding bluntness. Ben looked over at him in silence. Roger continued. "Gonna move far away from here, eh?"

"Annie likes the island. So do I. Just not the people in it."

"Well….she can't say it ain't beautiful." Roger popped open a beer and toasted it to Ben in haste. Ben stared at Roger's throat, his adam's apple bobbing with every gulp of beer he chugged. He suddenly felt the urge to change the subject.

"Do you really blame me?" Ben asked, inaudibly.

"What?"

"Do you really think it's my fault that she died?" Ben queried, thinking suddenly of his mother. Roger shrugged, apathetic. "I don't want to know."

Ben opened his mouth to say something, but caught his eyes at his watch. Four exactly. He needed to wrap things up.

"Why're ya keep staring at your watch? Got a date?" Roger put the focus back on Annie. Ben smiled dazedly. Robert would be escorting her to the beach by now. She was safe.

"Listen. If it makes you feel any better, I'll do my best to try to remember your birthday next year." Roger said. Ben looked over at him sullenly. "I don't think that's gonna happen, Dad." He unzipped something at his feet.

"What do you mean?" Roger gulped, feeling the effects of the alcohol slowing his reaction. Ben was busy with the object at his boots as he spoke.

"You know, I've missed her too. Maybe as much as you have. But the difference is, that for as long as I can remember, I've had to put..up…with..you." Ben nailed the last four words into the windshield, surprised that it didn't shatter. "And doing that….required a tremendous amount of patience." Roger was terrified now, as he heard his son speak through his teeth. Ben produced a gas mask, and fit it snugly over his head.

"Goodbye, Dad."

Roger was still trying to overcome the alcohol's retardation of his senses, as Ben pulled the trigger on a foreign looking can. Immediately, Roger could feel the poison snaking in through his nostrils, wrestling with his lungs, bursting open his veins and arteries until he felt a strong stream of blood at his nose.

And then, he realized. And the poison gripped him, cold fingers encasing him, squeezing him, until his organs spun like a whirlpool of thick stew. He was literally experiencing fatality, laying one layer before death. And his son was initiating it.

Of all the people he had made angry- all that he had seen lose control...He had never expected his son to man up. It almost filled him with sick, poisioned pride. His son was taking care of himself. Stepping up to the plate. Finally.

"Ben!" Roger wheezed, weakly reaching up to grab Ben's mask. Ben only stared forward, his concern on the time.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Annie awoke. It had been a long slumber, and she could spy the afternoon already fading away. She sat up at her bed and winced again. She would have to have Ben help her. Reaching for the phone, fingers poised to dial his number, she placed the receiver at her ear.

Code 14 J.

Annie's eyes widened as she listened to the code number. 14 J. She knew what it meant, and she knew it wasn't good. Fighting against the intense pain at her hips, she quickly found a rifle stowed between the mattresses of her bed. With a swift move she loaded it, and tiptoed out of her room into the living room. It was empty. Outside, she could see no one, but a single soul, perched on a bench. Annie sighed, feigned relief filling her chest. Only a drill.

Laying her sweaty head back on her pillow, Annie tried to cure the thumping of her heart. Something flashed by her window, and she soon found herself sitting up, adrenaline snaking its way through the roots of her veins, as her whole body shook.

It all happened so fast. The entire group filed in her house, and into her room before she heard the front door bolt shut. They all wore gas masks over thier dirty faces, and thier simple terra clothes made them so terrifyingly associable.

The Hostiles.

One of them moved to the front, shoved a gas mask on Annie's face, and dragged her out of the room and out the door. It was then that Annie truly felt the horror of what she had deemed impossible. She shut her watery eyes and shook her head in denial- praying that it was merely a nightmare and that she would awake to find Ben at her side. But no such hopes came.

The Dharma members littered the freshly cut grass, like manniquins all pushed over. With a cry of terror belonging in an asylum, Annie screamed and was instantly and reluctantly knocked out by Richard, who gazed at the poor girl, her auburn head hung low. Annie's bare feet dragged across the grass and into the jungle, destined on the camp.

**LOST4815162342**

With precious time, the hostiles quickly found the dharma hatch and pressed down into the secret tunnel. It winded and curved like a great snake, until finally, light could be seen through the moist outside. The mist of the sea hit them foreignly, and they hoisted Annie on thier shoulders like undertakers in some exotic funeral procession, setting her in the shade of a giant palm tree, palmetto fronds spreading like fingers towards the crystal water. Richard peeled the gas mask off of her steamy face, and trailed his eyes down to what he noticed as peculiar. A small, subtle bump was heading out from below her belly button. Her entire abdomen shifted on the spot, and his eyes widened.

So this was the reason Ben wanted to spare her. Annie stirred, and Richard quickly ran to the cavern, peeking at the young woman as she rubbed her head and stared around, bedraggled.

He wondered for a second if she remembered a thing.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** WOW! This was SO hard to write- I actually deleted the first version of this and had to go back and redo it all- I hope you like it. : All I can ask of you is to read and review! Thanks! I'm about half way into this fanfic, and I know I'll be writing a bunch during the hiatus...maybe some more Ben/Annie if I feel up to it. I'm definately looking into 'LOST: the musical" and "The Ballad of Ben Linus"- some songwriting at Church camp, definately! haha.

thank you my lovely readers,

_**lola.**_

_PS- I was on 'The Transmission' on 6/1/08- a LOST podcast! :D_

_ALSO:_

_I was listening to some songs on my iPod that really made me think of the Ben/Annie relationship. It also inspired a lot of these chapters._

_'Giving Up' by Ingrid Michaelson_

_'Dream' by Priscilla Ahn_

_'Time on your side' by Emile Jane White_

_Just wanted to post them on here- they really describe what I think went on between Ben/ Annie, which I hope we'll see in a Ben-centric flashback- (Cross your fingers for next year!)_


	12. twelve

**twelve**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

12

Danielle examined the test tube of plasma in the bleach-white Dharma lab on the neighboring island. She scraped the harvested virus off the Petri dish and dipped it in the plasma- which turned from a healthy glowing white to a dark blue.

"Doctor!" Danielle exclaimed, her eyebrows raising in disbelief, "Look at this!" An elder doctor came and examined the test tube. He too was surprised.

"I think you may be on to something, Danielle. Run the test again, and see if you get the same results." He then placed a live white rabbit on her table. After testing it again, Danielle drew a needle and filled it with the liquid. She pressed the viroid into the animal with a hope that it would do no harm. After all, Dharma was about peaceful exploration of the sciences. They would never trade on to do anything harmful.

With a peaceful mind, Danielle set the rabbit back in its cage and made her way to the barracks of the island.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST5815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

A dazed Ben walked out of the jungle, his gasmask still determinedly on his face. He saw the fallen Dharma members and felt little emotion, stepping over them as he saw the others walking towards him on the other side of the suburb. They too, were armed with gas masks and rifles, and as Robert glanced at his watch and motioned to everyone, removed their masks. Ben quickly walked to Robert, removed his gas mask abruptly, like a salute, and bored his blue eyes into Robert's.

Robert half-nodded awkwardly. "Do you want us to…go get his body?" He asked.

"No leave him out there." Ben said straightforwardly, as if he was discussing the weather, and not things of great importance. Robert uneasily frowned, paused and then swished next to Ben, whispering in his ear so the others couldn't hear him.

"She's alright. She's at the north beach- but she's seen everything. She's convinced you're dead." He looked Ben in the eyes. "I don't….know if she's going to be the same again. You might want to give her time." Robert turned to leave, but hesitated, and whispered something so inaudibly that Ben questioned what he heard exactly.

"You may want to keep her far away from here when she goes into labor for the baby."

With that, Robert briskly walked away, leaving Benjamin Linus speechless.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Annie was pacing. The pain in her lower abdomen had ceased, and she was back on her feet, toes squishing in the small currents of sand.

She was crazy. That was it. She was convinced that she somehow walked here in her sleep, and that she had dreamt it all. She would find some way through the thick vine entwined trees and get back to the Dharma station.

_She would find Ben and then call the doctor. _

An ache in her stomach ruptured and she tossed the contents of her stomach into the shallow water.

_On second thought, Doctor first. Ben later. _

Annie lay down in the sand, surprised the hot grains didn't melt into glass. She dug her extremities into it, hoping to find cool wet sand underneath. No such luck. The dry sand spread inches and inches underground, like desert. Another contraction came, this one much worse and seriously painful.

"Ben!" She cried aloud. Annie suddenly realized what her mother meant when she said that in times of labor, one will cry out the name of the one responsible. Beads of sweat cluttered at her brow, and she gripped the silky sand, as she breathed. In. Out. In. Out.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

The rabbit was dead. A fuchsia eye remained frightfully open, the pupil shrunken to the size of a single cell. A fleet of pink creatures laid at the tail, all cold and still. The rabbit had gone into labor the same night that the injection was made. Freezing up, it had shook and whimpered with seizures, finally giving stillbirth and dying.

Danielle bit her lip in dread. She called the other doctor to come investigate. After a thorough autopsy, the doctor confirmed the death.

"A nerve dysfunction caused the death of the rabbit. It was a virus that attacked the immune system first, shifting from attacking mother to attacking offspring. After depleting the immune system of the mother and child, the virus invaded the cardiovascular system, causing little damage, and then infested itself in the nerve endings and spinal cord. It depleted the frontal lobe and the cerebellum, causing internal bleeding, and finally, painfully…death. For both parent and offspring." The doctor removed his glasses. "If this were to ever cross over to humans, we would have the worst outbreak the world has ever known."

Danielle furrowed her brow. "I thought ze doctors believed the virus would start at conception, meaning zat both parents would posseese it."

"True. But this is a different means of it. Injecting the subject directly with the viroid was predictably going to cause it fatality. But both parents would need to possess the virus at conception. The disease is only malignant at conception, and only to the mother."

"So, vhy are ve doing this?" Danielle asked.

The doctor blinked. He said nothing, and quietly fell over onto the lab floor, the back of his bleached coat soaked with blood. Danielle screamed, and hastily took the virus sample, placing it in her back pocket. A fleet of men with rifles filed into the lab, breaking beakers and tipping microscopes over. Danielle raised her hands in the air. "Please- don't shoot! Ve are vith ze Dharma Eneetiateve!"

"The Dharma Initiative is over, thanks to Benjamin Linus. Everyone is dead." Blurted a man in the back. Everyone turned to him, as Danielle quickly backed up. A beaker of hydrochloric monoxide was perched behind her on the cabinet. A single person stepped over the doctor, and gripped Danielle's graceful neck with his gloved hands. Danielle choked, gasping for breath as he pushed her up onto the cabinets. Feeling the world slip away, Danielle made one last move: she grabbed the beaker of acid and poured it onto the face of her captor- making the room burst in flames.

As Danielle's brown hair caught on fire, she escaped, coughing. She flayed down the dock, making her way to the boat. Fiddling with the keys, she saw several men chasing her down the wooden runway. Finally finding the boat key, she stuck it in the ignition and slammed on the motor. Before long, the dock was out of sight, and Danielle was destined for the island. She tried to jog her memory: the men obviously weren't the Others- they wore business suits and spoke in foreign accents. She erased the thought off her mind, thinking of only two people, that she knew must absolutely be safe. If not, the world would slowly shift.

Ben Linus and Annie Goodspeed.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_Hey all! Thanks so much for the reviews! They're so inspiring and uplifting! :D Not much really to say, here. Hope you enjoy the fic and please review n' tell me what you think! _

_ lola_


	13. thirteen

**thirteen**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

_13_

Dark clouds were rolling in. The sea before Danielle Rousseau was still calm, dark and still, with little winds picking up the sails of the tiny schooner. The young scientist intern was still trying to calm her bleating heart. With anger, she dialed the number of Horace Goodspeed, hoping to give him a piece of her mind. Tragedy had struck, and Horace would have been the one to see it all coming.

The phone rang on the other end. Someone picked it up, but it wasn't Horace.

"Hello?"

"Meester Goodspeed? Are you Horayze Goodspeed?" Danielle spat angrily into the transceiver. Her 'r's slurred terribly every time she was angry.

"No. This is Ben Linus."

"Ben! Oh Ben…Vhat eez going on? I 'ave heard things and Meester Lawreence, ze doctor, vas murdered by these men on ze island we went to so ve could do research. Ve have learned 'orrible things, Ben."

"What kind of things, Danielle?" Ben's voice was eerily calm.  
"Ben….vhere is Meester Goodspeed?"

Ben ignored her. "Can we get a fix on your location?"

"Yeah." Danielle glanced over at her GPS, hesitating. Did she really want to tell Ben exactly her pinpoint. She shivered with fear, as she imagined the men in business coats and brown gas masks, holding a gun to her head. Thinking quickly, she lied. "My GPS is broken. Ben…vhat's going on? Vhere is 'orace Goodspeed?"

Ben hung up.

Danielle set down the receiver, right as it began to ring. Holding it to her ear, she expected to hear Ben's voice. Instead, she heard the urgent voice of a Dharma employee.

"This is Lillian Renee. I work at the Dharma station the Pearl. There has been an uprising with the natives, and all at the suburb are dead- no one is responding from the Orchid, the Swan, and the Looking Glass. There are four of us, and we are at the western shore. Do not come to the island under any circumstances. If you do, it could mean-" A wave of static overcame the call and Danielle gripped it tightly, holding it up. "Come on, come on!" She grunted, until finally, the transmission was clear again.

"-needs a weapon- we need some sort of support against Ben Linus and the others. And quickly. Send for reinforcement immediately." The transmission was over, leaving Danielle speechless, her small mouth agape.

Ben Linus. Did she hear correctly? Ben? As in, Benjamin Linus- leader of the Hostiles? She shifted the boat west. It couldn't be. Annie's fiancé? No. No.

It was. After speaking over the tranciever with the other frightened scientists, Danielle heard the entire story. Reaching into her back pocket, she glanced at the small viroid sample with anxiety.

_If it was to ever cross over to the human race…We'd have a pandemic on our hands. _

The words of the elder doctor echoed in her mind, moments before he was killed. She had grabbed his notes before the fire had consumed the room, and now she formed a plan in her head. She could wipe out the entire Hostile population in a simple sweep of the water supply.

Danielle gasped, surprised at herself for thinking so horribly. Then, she glanced back at the tube again.

They killed everyone.

Olivia, Horace, everyone.

Annie.

Danielle's head throbbed as she felt her throat expand in a sob. She knew she must have vengeance. She knew what had to be done. And she would do it. A zealous ardor filled her chest like magma. She released a puff of steam into the cold night, a sob escaping her lips.

As globs of rain began to fall, Danielle headed back to another neighboring island. She began to take notes on mutating the viroid for human transmission, writing so intensely that she tore the paper again and again.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"Danny Neuko…is an interesting person…Pardon me…_was_ an interesting person." Ben Linus said, looking over the manila folder. His blue eyes trailed up to Juliet's in suspicion. "How did you know?"

Juliet's heart beat faster, anticipating long awaited information. "It said that he was Annie's-"

"I know what it says." Ben replied briskly. " But, a romance between two teenagers in the 1970's would hardly spark an inquiry."

"Well, then, what did you mean when you asked me how I knew?"

Ben half smiled, half sneered. "Danny Neuko is the alleged vector of the pathogen for the disease that you're trying to cure, Juliet."

"So you think he was the one who first carried it?"

"It's been proved as far as scientific theories go."

Juliet frowned. "Why haven't you told me this before?"

Ben shrugged professionally. "I thought it didn't need mentioning."

Didn't need _mentioning_? Juliet opened her mouth to condemn Ben, but instead found her lips drawn to more questions.

"It hasn't been confirmed?" She asked. Ben stood up, and paced the dark room. A single light shined down on the metal table bearing the folder on Annie Goodspeed.

"There's theories on how exactly the disease first entered the community. It appeared first in Annie Goodspeed, who died in childbirth first-"

"No. That's not correct." Juliet said, opening the file. "It says here that she was killed in the Purge of 1979."

"That could also be true. But Danny Neuko wasn't born on the island."

"None of the Dharma Initative were. Every single one of them could have possibly vectored the disease to the community."

"Yes- but Danny Neuko fathered the child that Annie Goodspeed died in childbirth with."

"He did?" Juliet's eyes widened.

"Yes."

"Did you know Annie?"

Ben blinked. "Yes."

"But I-" Juliet paused. "But you.." She stopped, thinking to herself for a moment. "This is- " With an abrupt stop, Ben stared her down, grinding the metal chair against the cold tile floor of the interrogation room. He then walked briskly outside.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry the chapter was so short! It's very late here, and I want to bump back up to the first page quickly. Hope you enjoy!

White Stone: Thanks for the critique- it really helps!

Annie Linus: Haha- I couldn't believe it when I heard my voice! I don't really have an accent except when I get really nervous- and I called them like, 9 times- so it sounded kind of bad! It was a simple question- I just was more worried about getting on the podcast for the last time in 9 months than going through the episode and finding the simple answer myself- but Anyway! Thanks for the critique also!

lola


	14. fourteen

**fourteen**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

14

It was a statue of a foot with four toes.

Annie looked puzzled, as she walked towards the massive pillar of stone carved craftfully into what probably had erected as a full-bodied figure at one point in time. The winds of the north beach were almost cold, nipping at her bare toes and moist wrinkled hands, and the sharp rocks of the beach served as a watery grave for all walks of life.

All that remained of the statue was the foot...lacking in the last practical alignment of the last toe.

Annie's swelling belly touched the edge of the pedestal, and she shifted back, stepping her pulsing painful foot into the rocks. High grasses bowed down to the statue, suddenly persuaded by the wind. The currents came at all directions- North, South, East, West, and shifted up towards the sky as soon as they hit the statue. Wincing, Annie slowly sat down, feeling her baby kick at the back of her abdomen. Stormy clouds congregated darkly to the west.

_So the baby feels the eerie silence too. _She whispered inaudibly to no one.

It had been 5 months since Annie had realized her pregnancy. Trying to escape the frequent hostile searches for her while carrying a baby had proved tremendous work. After so many grief stricken nights- when Annie cried for Ben, for her mother, her father- Annie could feel the baby also share her mother's sadness.

Now, almost unable to move, Annie had felt her mind slip from her. She felt as if a part of her mind had died with all those who had been slayed a mere 8 months ago. She had accepted Ben's death with astronomical reluctance, and had entertained the idea of ending it all with the spare twine in her back pocket, and some old tree in the jungle. It had almost seemed too easy.

And then there was the baby. It was a part of Annie, a part of Ben. And as soon as she realized she carried it, Annie knew death was not an option at the moment. She was sure Robert had been killed also, for he was the only one willing to take her and hide her away. Now, nothing stopped the hostiles from finding her and killing her. The last Dharma member on the island. Annie caressed the shell of her stomach that served as a sanctuary for the baby. She began to hum a familiar lullaby.

_My baby, my baby, I give you lift, _

_Into this world that's beginning to shift, _

_I'm sorrowfully fleeting, and you'll take my stand, _

_To save my spirit, to save this native land. _

It was a lullaby Annie's mother had learned from the hostiles and had often sung to her on occasion. Forced to be thier messenger, she had befriended some, who did not know her standing with Dharma. They taught her thier songs, true feelings of sadness weaved into them, and she picked up the song. She remembered the clean cotton curtains pinned up on the line, waving in the wind like flags over an immense blue sky, her mother's sweet voice and golden hair, her father's humor and awkwardness, the both of them in Dharma jumpsuits. Losing herself in her dreams of the past, Annie didn't hear the sudden footsteps on the beach. And then, a twig snapped somewhere behind her in the jungle. Snapping out of it, Annie gasped as she saw a congregation of people walking down the briny beach. Some were armed with rifles, while others carried transceivers. The cried orders into the phones, and some ran ahead of the others, and fired into the jungle as if going into battle.

But that wasn't what Annie was upset about. What made her heart flutter, what caused her eyes to twitch, her vision to blur, her hair to stand on end and her lungs to suffocate was not the fear of the hostiles a mere 20 feet from her. It was their leader, punching in numbers on the GPS and looking out to sea- laden in the simple clothes of the hostiles, no longer in his usual Dharma jumpsuit.

Ben.

**LOST48151652342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Quietly, Danielle Rousseau snuck into the Tokyo laboratory of Bioscience. Entering a code, she scanned an ID card.

4--8--1--5--1--6--2--3--4--2

A feminine, robotic voice spoke something in Japanese. At once, the pair of iron doors swept open to reveal a dark laboratory. Flickering on, the lab came to life. Danielle walked through rows of serried researched chemicals, through a nuclear test room and all the way to the freezer room. Entering another access code, she stepped in.

The room was frigid, with fog rising over it, making it almost unable to see. Two spherical containers sat at the far end of the freezer. Slipping into a vacuum safe suit, Danielle walked over to a file cabinet that sat next to the containers. Lugging with all her might, the cabinet finally popped open, inches of tabs held up. One read 'Smallpox- 6543' another 'Polio- 5488' , and "Bubonic Plague- 1222' and finally 'Animal to Sapien biobuffer 4815'. Taking a crowbar, Danielle opened the delicate container to reveal layers of frozen test tubes. It was here that smallpox, polio, and other horrible diseases lie in perfect seclusion, ready for a war that would unleash them into the population.

Looking at each neon tube, Danielle finally came across 4815. Her heart beat fast as she took the sample from its nest, and retrieved the file that was assigned to it. Her mission completed, Danielle turned to leave.

Charles Widmore stood behind her, his pale wrinkled face polite and deceptive.

"Hello, Danielle." He said plainly.

Danielle's shiny eyes widened like silver dollars as she turned around. She backed up, knocking over a stack of files placed behind her. "How do you know my name?" she asked, trying to stay calm.

Widmore smiled at her, like an old geezer trapping a young shoplifter in a store. He laughed. "Do you not know who I am?"

"I'm guessing you're zey bloke 'oo sent those men to kill Doctor Lawreence." Danielle spat, her tense shoulders straightening in eerie confidence. "You funded ze Dharma Initiative, so zat ve would develop a weapon zat vould kill us all off slowly."  
"Oh?" Widmore raised his eyebrows.  
"Infertility." Danielle stated, the test tube of biobuffer still in her back pocket along with the viroid sample. "Ze doom of mankind, no?"

"Yes. Very good. Continue, please."

"Why?" Danielle asked straightly. "You vill only kill me vhen I'm done."

"You reason quite well like your cousin, Danielle."

"Don't threaten me with thoughts of killing my relatives. My parents disassociated me with their families."

"So you know that you are related to Benjamin Linus?"

Danielle stepped back, feeling her eyes rise up into her head of brown waves. It couldn't be. She jogged her memory, back to before landing on the island.

"_Where are ve from, Bapi?" _

_Alpert Rousseau smiled, hesitating as he scratched his balding brown head. "Portland, Oregon. We moved to France when you were three." _

_A young thirteen year old Danielle smiled, her shoulders glowing in the South Pacific sun. The schooner of her parents cruised on over the cool waves. _

"_Portland?" She questioned. "As in, Amereeca?"_

"_Yes. We took your mother's name." Her father said, smiling over to her mother, who waved behind her favorite French romance novella. Alpert and the captain hoisted up the sails, as Danielle glanced at him. "So I am, Amereecan?" _

"_Yes and no. You have French blood in you, Danielle. That will always make you French."_

"_Vell said, Alpert." Evey Rousseau cooed luxuriously. "My daughter, you vill alvays be French. N'importe ce que." She smiled, clinching her daughter's chin with loving pride. _

_The storm came quickly, without warning. It first was detected as gooseflesh trailed down the arms of Danielle. The humid, hot wind was replaced with cold, bitter winds. The water turned from crystal blue to almost black, and the storms overhead matched it. Lightning came, striking the sails and firing down through the linen sails in flames. It was if God Himself had punished the Rousseau family that day, and as they crashed into the sharp rocks, flailing out as the both sunk from under them, Danielle felt a parting of the waves. She felt as though a new chapter of her life was beginning. And it would start with the creation of her orphanhood. _

"_Mama. Mama!" She cried out, swimming over to her mother, who had crashed on the rocks a half-mile out from the rocky Northern shore. Her mother said nothing, chocolate curls spindled over her face like fair spider webs. A trail of blood dripped from her hair, and her limp arms cradled the sharp rocks that had killed her. _

_After a moments' silence, Danielle began to gasp hysterically as her mother's favorite novel floated by. In grief, she fainted, allowing the tempered waves to carry her to shore. Her father was never found. And thus, began her life. _

"Something wrong, dear?" Widmore asked, inspecting the gun in his hands that he had retrieved from the back of his Burberry shirt, like some horrible, hiding beast. It had a handle carved from elephant's ivory, and a barrel that looked terribly accurate.

"N-no." Danielle whimpered. She stepped to the side, hoping to crouch down if Widmore were to shoot. She tried to stall him. "I assume you have the Tokyo police after me now?"

"Tokyo Police? You really are Ben's sister-"

"Cousin."

"Same difference." Widmore continued. "No. Me, myself and I. And one shot."

"For me?" Danielle asked, terrified.

"For Ben Linus and his group of followers, dear." Widmore addressed. "I want you to give him a message for me.."Widmore walked up to her and snatched her by the front of her shirt. "Tell him I'm coming for him- tell him there's no way for him to escape- I know exactly where the island is." He whispered. "Wish him good luck." With that, Widmore left, leaving a permanent stretch mark on Danielle's shirt. He began to walk out the door when he turned to her.

"Tell Ben I have a gift for him. I'll give it to you."

With that, Charles Widmore abruptly shot Danielle Rousseau in the chest. She fell to the ground as he climbed into his car and left, Tokyo's skyscraper lights serving as his makeshift navigators.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"We're looking for a mad woman." Ben said aloud to the crowd of hostiles. They nodded, and searched in the flora of the North beach, glancing around large-waisted trees and behind ferns the size of minivans. "She's pregnant- her name is Danielle Rousseau." Ben lied, gazing north to the glittering ocean. "She knows some very important information that we need- and hopefully, we'll harvest it."

Patchy, one of the others, ran up to Ben, panting, from a small trail in the tall grass. "She's gone- I found a trail of footprints that leads into the jungle."  
"Yes- and?"

"And they lead right into one of the estuaries." Patchy continued. "No other trails, nothing. It's like the woman just walked on water or something."

"Perhaps. Alright, back to camp." Ben ordered. Annie, who hid behind the four toed statue, shut her eyes with relief. Her baby began to kick again and she almost yelped in the pain- whispering gently to her baby.

"Don't kick now; what if your father hears us?" She asked, smiling. Suddenly, she gripped her stomach, realizing the situation. "What if he hears us?" she repeated, voice shaky and breathless with tears.


	15. fifteen

**fifteen**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

15

The sails fluttered in the wind as Danielle Rousseau made her way back to the island. Her bullet-proof vest, tattered from the shock of the bullet, sat in a heap next to her, a bruised rib the only reminder that she was ever shot.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she anticipated the island. She had heard that it had been ambushed over by the rebels- that everyone was gone. The transmission she had received had been so real, so frightening, that she couldn't help but feel the tenseness in her nerves, her sweaty palms veering the sails to move with the wind southeastward. Dark clouds trailed behind her, like a personified version of Charles Widmore, lingering in the bullet still wedged in the vest. Feeling superstitious, Danielle chucked the vest overboard, bubbling in the foam of the waves. The island was still nowhere in sight. Checking her watch, she could feel the sun's last rays cascading over her dark hair, and into the blackening water. The clouds were catching up to her now.

8:15 PM

She could hear the thunder drum off in the distance, the crouching lightning streak across the swirling sky. It was déjà vu for her, as she tried to maneuver into safer waters. A reef that stuck out of the ocean suddenly slewed through her boat, sawing it in half. The little schooner balanced on itself, as the current raced it off course, to the east. Crying out in the storm, Danielle could hardly hear herself. The worst part of it was now coming into view, as well as the island. The French girl gave a sigh of relief, before she realized what shore it was. The north shore.

Sharp rocks. The same ones that killed all aboard 20 years previous. Danielle was prepared to jump, when the boat veered apart, sucking her under.

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"Annie! Annie!" Annie awoke behind the four toed statue to see Ben running out on the beach. He didn't see her, yet he was hysterical as none joined him.

"Annie- Annie, please! If the hostiles frightened you earlier, please come out! Please!" Ben was frantic. He called her name infinitive times, until he coughed; fell on his knees in the sand, clutching handfuls of it. It broke Annie's heart, as she saw the high tides fall in around him, wetting the knees of his khakis. He was in total shock as he composed himself and stood up, the tide gathering around his ankles. He only looked up to the skies, the crashing thunder cascading around him. "Thank you, Jacob. Thank you for taking the one thing that mattered. Thank you."

With that, Ben Linus turned and left. Annie stepped in view, tears welling in her eyes. She wasn't sure whether it was fear or some other emotion that kept her from him. Trying to think about it, Annie's attention was suddenly taken by the boat rearing off in the distance. It struggled in the wind, the sails finally falling down into the water. Taken by concern, Annie quickly waddled through the jungle, over intertwining vines, hoping to catch it when it hit the shore.

Meanwhile, Danielle Rousseau soaked up on the beach in the twilight. She opened her salt-filled eyes, and pulled herself up on her arms. Choking and gagging, she spit up an immense amount of water, and then sagged to the ground, soaking and bleeding, hair sprawled across her face. She muttered something in French, and then sat up, holding her knees to her chest. Her eyes drooped, and she knew high tide was coming in.

A cross, crafted by two yellow rainforest oak twigs and some twine, served as Annie Goodspeed's memorial. Saying the Lord's Prayer in French in her most somber voice, Danielle dug her fingers around the cross, and traced a mini moat around it, as the high tides reached it, foaming about Danielle's small, memorial Calvary. Hanging her head, Danielle said a soft 'adieu' to her friend, and continued up the beach, to take shelter. The storm had died down, and, resisting to investigate and confirm her friend's death, Danielle had begun to weep silently amid the tall grasses.

Twice she had lost her mother figure to this shore. And, although she didn't know if Annie had perished on the shore or in the hands of Ben, Danielle still felt the sorrowful exterior of the place reach inside to rip out her heart.

It was at dawn that Annie Goodspeed came charging up the hill, her bulging belly sticking out under her simple, dirty dress that she had worn for months. She carried the linen of the sails, and beamed as she saw Danielle. Wincing in pain, Annie ran up the hill with the sails, and slowly sat down next to her sleeping friend. Feeling like a little child again, Annie tickled her friend on the space between her eyes. Giggling, Danielle opened her mud-colored eyes to see her friend. She screamed. Loudly.

"What sort of welcome was that?" Annie asked, reaching in her knapsack a few moments after Danielle had pulled herself together.

"I zought you vere dead." Danielle said sheepishly.

"Almost." Annie said dryly. "Ben is looking for me."

"Are you looking for heem?"

Annie shut her eyes in pain. She gripped her bare belly and sucked in a breath. "I am afraid after what happened to me almost 8 months ago. The hostiles came- they took me here. I haven't been able to find a way back, and with…" Annie motioned to her stomach. "I'm due any week now."She said. And with that, Annie explained detail of her capture to Danielle. Danielle, flushed with anger, clenched her fists.

"So, Meester Napoleon thinks 'e can save 'is Josephine an' conquer Russia at ze same time." She spat, referencing the great leader and his hidden lover. "Vell, 'e is vrong, an' if 'e thinks 'e can still keep-"

"I love him, Danielle."

Danielle paused. "What?" She asked. Annie laid down on her back, under the tall grasses.

"Do you not realize I'm pregnant, Danielle?"

"You're blown up like Marie Antoinette on couture. Vhat else eez new?"

"Don't you realize?" Annie said softly, blushing. "This baby is Ben's baby- my baby..I love him. He love me. That's why I'm pregnant." She explained. Danielle only looked at her friend, puzzled. Annie had always been the logical, matter-of-fact one. Now, she spoke of this baby as if it was the greatest math problem she had ever solved.

"He came looking for me today." Annie continued. "I don't know why- I just….I just felt like it wasn't time for him to see me."

"Annie, do you not know vhat 'e 'as done?" Danielle cried. " 'e killed-"

"I know what he did. You have no right to condemn him." Annie snapped. "I know I sound naïve, I know I do. I'm not all lovey dovey here because I've been stuck on this island alone for 8 months. It's because I know something now. Yes- it's a fact. And you have no right to condemn him-"

"Benjamin Linus? Oh, yeah…We do."

Annie swiftly sat up, holding her belly. Two people, laden in Dharma jumpsuits and transceivers, stood above them. A tall man, with auburn hair and freckled cheeks, glanced over at his partner, an even taller blonde woman with steel grey eyes. They both stared at Danielle, then Annie, and finally, Annie's stomach.

" Two women. One French and one pregnant. Wouldn't have seen that one coming.." The tall blonde woman said edgily. Danielle stood up and held out her hand to hoist up Annie, the other to the two Dharma Initiative members.

"Are you the two people from the Pearl station that contacted me via transceiver?"

"That's us. My name's Rachael Guren…Anthropologist for the Pearl Station." The scientist named Rachael said. "At least…I was."

"Ian Lewis…I was a chemist for the Pearl." The red-haired man named Ian replied. "We were trying to get a fix on your location, but we couldn't find you."

"I had some business to attend to." Danielle said. "I'll discuss it with you both later." She turned to Annie. "This is Annie Goodspeed- she was part of the Dharma Initiative."

"Goodspeed? Horace Goodspeed was your father?"

"Yes." Annie replied, bracing herself for the worst.

Rachael gasped, embracing Annie. "I'm so sorry. And your mother, too." Hot tears welled up in Annie's eyes, as she touched reality.

"Rachael didn't know anyone on the Island- except me." Ian said to Danielle, as the two women cried. "She didn't feel any loss really." Danielle nodded, walking down to the beach. Examining the cross that still stood in the high waves, Danielle decided to leave it there. She knew this experience would leave one, if not all, of them dead.

Rachael, Ian, and Danielle sat crisscrossed in the tall grass of the northern shore of the island early the next day. The sun was just unfolding itself over the tall green mountains of the central mesa. Danielle drew the two test tubes from her back pocket.

"This is my weapon against the Others."

Ian and Rachael exchanged glances. Taking the tubes, Ian inspected them. "What are they?" Rachael inquired.

"A biobuffer-"

"For what?" Ian asked immediately. Danielle smiled. "A transitional buffer that will translate an animal-vectored disease to a human-vectored disease."

Rachael's mouth opened in awe. She brushed her hands over the neon tube. "Amazing." She said. "Where on earth did you get it?"

"The Tokyo institute of Biotechnology."

"So- you mean to say your weapon of choice is Bioterrorism."

"I'm getting to that." Danielle continued. "This virus, which I helped develop, will completely put population at a standstill. It makes women infertile at conception. My plan is to somehow infiltrate the Others, so that each and every one of them is infected with the disease. At conception, the virus will start growing into the second trimester. Then, the mother will go into labor early and die, along with the baby."

Rachael frowned. "You were part of that team who went to the neighboring island?"

"Yes."

"I heard they all were murdered."

"Yes- by Charles Widmore's men. I escaped."

Ian and Rachael glanced at each other, and then stared at Danielle.

"Are you crazy?" Rachael asked. "Charles Widmore is the man that is funding the whole operation."

"Well, he obviously wanted it for something. But I escaped, went to Tokyo, and was shot by him-"

"Shot? However did you escape?"

"Bulletproof vest."

"This is too weird." Rachael commented. "He got the coordinates from the Island from us."

"What?" Danielle asked, alarmed.

"Yeah. He called us on the transceiver, what- yesterday?" Ian nodded in confirmation. "We told him the coordinates, and he said he'd be down here as soon as he could be- possibly as soon as two months."

Danielle's mouth was agape. "Do you know what that man is capable of?" She questioned.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey- hey you! You probably just read that chapter up there that one. Comment on it. Good? Bad? Brilliant? Sad? Let me know so I can make it your favorite fic! It will only take a second and it makes my day!! :D

lola


	16. sixteen

**sixteen**

_lola-write-hand_

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16

Annie waddled down to the estuary, untying her hair from the sleek chocolate-colored braid that snaked down her back.

Everyone always treated pregnant women like elderly people or diseased children. With patience, withdrawal. She felt as though she was being excluded just because she was due any day. With a long sigh, she sat on the banks of the river, looking around to make sure no one was watching. Pulling the shirt over her loose hair, Annie unhooked her bra and stepped into the cool, clear water. Her bump lay half-immersed as she closed her eyes, feeling the calm current tug her out to sea. Her long hair connected the freckles on her face and covered her breasts like Eve. Spanning out her arms, she held on to a rock and let her feet float in front of her, as she dipped lower into the water, almost disappearing behind the firm shell of flesh that protected the baby.

Ben Linus trudged through the jungle, occasionally swatting at the buzzing malaria ridden mosquitoes. He sat down, removing his shoes and shaking the sand out of them, whilst rummaging in his pocket for a small piece of folded up paper. It was a blueprint of a constructed cabin.

Jacob's cabin.

Jacob had always seemed like the Zeus in those old myths that he had heard once or twice mumbling from the Greecian members of the Dharma initiative. Jacob seemed unreal, a cover-up. But now, he was instructed by the others to go atop Mount Olympus- to find the Titan himself. Turning the map to a 180 angle, Ben removed his glasses, still hardly able to make out the trail. Even he hadn't anticipated that it would be this difficult.

A small wave rolled by, touching his bare feet that leaned over the edge of the estuary. Ben cursed silently under his breath, realizing he was actually at the North beach. Was Benjamin Linus actually lost? Those sorts of things never seemed to burden him. He rubbed his blue eyes and touched the clear water, realizing that a small bypass couldn't hurt.

Ben shot off glances in the jungle, praying dearly that no one was watching him. He removed his shirt, risking it with the already-soaked khakis. He slowly eased into the water, sighing. On the other side of the estuary, Annie Goodspeed woke up with a start.

Ben gasped.

Annie cried aloud, standing up. Realizing that she was all but dressed, she covered her chest with her arms, her chocolate hair strewn across her flushed face, resembling the Birth of Venus painting. Like a deer in the headlights, she froze, as Ben's eyes widened at this Aphrodite.

"Annie..Please.Don't be afraid." He said softly, waltzing over to her through the narrow stream. Annie took a step back, finding her balance on a rock. Ben was in awe as he held out his hand, and, touching her stomach, he took in a short breath.

"Annie. You're safe."

Annie's widened eyes eased, and she smiled as she heard his familiar voice. She set her hands on his shoulders, and settled down in the water with him. Emotion almost overcame Ben as he caressed her swelling stomach.

"Annie, I can't believe-" Ben's voice broke.

"I know. I couldn't either."

"I just."

"I know, Ben." Annie stressed, resting her weary head on his shoulder.

"I don't see-" Ben said calmly. "How any of this came to be. And- Richard. Did Richard treat you well?"

"As well as someone can treat a hostage, yes." Annie said softly. Ben felt a wave of guilt come over him. She needed warmth, shelter, love. Especially while she carried a child. And he had provided her nothing- yet a smile still graced her face.

"Don't talk. Just….just listen." Her eyes dropped down to her stomach, Ben's hand gently placed on it. "I don't know what happened with the Dharma Initiative..I don't know what you did. Frankly, I don't want to know.." She closed her eyes as Ben gazed at her intensely. "But I love you, Ben." She said, matter-of-factly. "And I'm not saying it to see your reaction, or because I've been alone for almost 8 months. I say it because I realize it's true and I know it is."

Ben held his hands to her head and kissed her tenderly on the forehead, before immersing himself into the water to kiss her stomach. He said nothing, but only squeezed her hand tightly, before clearing his voice and speaking in his same professional tone.

"You need to come with me, Annie. You're due any day, and I want to be there when-"

"I can't, Ben."

Ben's eyes widened in emotion. "You have to, Annie. If I leave you- again- I'll never be able to focus. You don't have to trust those people, just stay by me and I-"

"Ben- if you bring me into that camp, you show your weakness- you parade it in the open. They'll manipulate you." Annie said seriously. "And if you want to keep any sort of peace with these people, you won't take me with you. And you know you can't." A tear passed her eyes undetected and fell into the water. Ben stood up, and helped her out of the estuary, taking her by the hand.

"It's your order. I understand." He said it with emotionless speech, yet his eyes were pleading with her. Walking a ways into the jungle, Annie laid down softly, leaving room for Ben beside her. "Come quickly." She uttered breathlessly, as his hand caressed through her crown of hair. "Some people will be here within the hour, checking on me. Our baby is due soon." She looked up to him, her eyes filled with quiet desperation, silent longing for him. With implacable sorrow, yet true hope, he lowered himself down to her as she squirmed out of the rest of her soaking clothes.

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"Where's Annie?" Rachael asked, glancing over at Ian, who shrugged. "She should have been here an hour ago." Danielle's eyes opened wide from her slumber, as she grabbed the rifle poised in Ian's hands.

"She's either late, een labor, or captured." Danielle said. "Guess vhich one I'm 'oping for."With that, she ran off into the jungle in search of her friend, Ian and Rachael following close behind. Coming to a break in the jungle, Danielle handed the rifle back to Rachael, and took a left- Rachael and Ian taking the right, by the estuary. Veering off again, they separated.

"They're coming." Annie moaned softly. She winced as Ben took his weight off her, to the clayish ground. Annie glanced over at him, her hair sprawled across her face. She silently cried out in pain, clutching her abdomen. Ben leaned over her and held her inflated belly. "Are you alright?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Contractions. So many of them." She opened her big brown eyes. "It's not your fault…I just.." She fell out of consciousness. Ben quietly shook her, and her eyes rolled open.

"I'm going to die, Ben." She whispered. "Something's not right." Ben took her hand and held it in his. "No." He said plainly. "You'll be alright."

"They're coming." She said again. "Go…if they find you here-"

"They'll kill me." Ben said, grinning at her sullenly. " I'm not worried." He kissed her hand, cradling it between his.

Annie smiled behind her pained face. "Benjamin Linus always finds his way, huh?"

With sudden strength, she stood up, scooped up her clothes in her bare arms, shuffling them on as she hid behind a tree. Ben leaped out of sight as the blonde woman picked up their trail, her rifle poised on her shoulder.

"Who's there?" She commanded. Annie stepped out, holding her arms up. Immediately, Rachael dropped the gun and hurried over to her.

"What took you so long?" She asked.

"I'm having contractions." Annie winced, as the pain flowed over her. She gripped her bulging stomach and fell on her knees.

"Ian!" Rachael cried. Ian appeared the same way Rachael had come. Suddenly, a twig snapped in the jungle somewhere. Ian held up his rifle, and Rachael gasped.

Benjamin Linus.

"Well, hello." Ian said, with a sarcastic air of welcome. "Didn't expect to find you here."

"Ian Lewis. Nice to see you." Ben fired back.

"What on earth are you doing here?"

Ben looked around. "I'm looking for a specific place."

"Is it death? Because I think you found it." Ian poised the gun, winking through the barrel. Annie cried out in protest.

"Don't do it!" She yelled out. Both Rachael and Ian stared at her, as if she had instantly become a hostile. Annie thought quickly.

"They'll know what happened if he dies- they'll come for us. And that'll be the end."

"No, Annie- this, this man right here- do you know what he's done?"

Annie stepped in front of him. "I know exactly what he's done. And I know this should be his end. But, why stoop to his level?"

"Stop sounding like a schoolgirl and step aside." Ian said.

"No."

"What?"

"I said no." Annie said. Rachael's grey eyes widened as she realized something. She looked from Annie, to Ben, to Annie's stomach, and she was able to put two and two together. Gripping Ian's arm, she shook her head.

"No, Ian."

"You're people of science- not murderers!" Annie cried out, before bending double in pain. Rachael and Ian quickly came to her aid- Ben silently wishing that he could also. Ian glanced back at him as he held one of Annie's arms.  
"If you don't get out of here in 10 seconds, I have every right to shoot you."

"I think that's for me to decide, Mr. Lewis." Ben said. Ian reached for his rifle, but then was baffled, finding that Ben had disappeared.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: _Hey guys! Hope you enjoy the chapter! _

_I really need reviews, by the way. I'm not trying to whine or anything, but it's so discouraging when I publish 3 new chapters and no one comments. It'll take a second of your time and it means so much! So review, review, review! :D _

_THANKS!_

_lola_


	17. seventeen

**seventeen**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

**17**

"Vhere are ve going?" Danielle asked dazedly. Ian and Rachael stopped, exchanged glances, and began shredding through the vines of the jungle.

"Jacob." Rachael said simply. "We're going to Jacob."

"Who eez Jacob?"

"Who?" Ian repeated hesitantly. "Who is a debatable term." A silent moment slithered by as Ian thought. "He helped Horace Goodspeed, and the Dharma Initiative."

"So- don't you think zat Ben 'as already been to 'im and convinced 'im to destroy us?"

Rachael and Ian laughed grimly, pressing forward through the vines.

"Benjamin Linus was a janitor." Rachael said savagely, wiping beads of persperation off her forehead. "He had no idea who Jacob even was, until the hostiles spilled. That's probably why he was over there- looking for Jacob's cabin."

"And ve are going to 'im why?"

Ian's tone changed to serious. "Because we got a transmission today, by the neighboring island. They said that some mercenaries had stopped there to refuel for the week and that they were leaving for this island as soon as they can. Our best bet is to ask Jacob what to do."

"And you zink zat dees Jacob vill help us?"

Rachael turned around. "I know he'll help us." She said with blind faith.

Soon, the cabin came into view. It was new, with the smell of rainforest oak wafting through the air. The trees around it had been butchered down, and the ax that had erected it still balanced, flung into a neighboring tree.

"Which one of us will go?" Ian asked, glancing at Rachael. "Who is most worthy?"

Rachael took a deep breath, shutting her grey eyes. Rising to the skies, she had an epiphany and clenched her fists.

"Rock paper scissors." She said as zealously as possible. Danielle grinned, and they all put their fists together.

"Rock-"

"Paper…"

"Scissors!"

Ian had rock. Rachael went with paper, and so did Danielle.

Putting their fists together, Rachael and Danielle gave it a shot again. Danielle had rock, and Rachael had scissors.

"I vin!" Danielle giggled. Her tone changed as Rachael and Ian took a step back, and she walked forward on the dirt path. Climbing the fresh splintered ladder, Danielle gulped.

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"Paik industries?" Juliet asked into the telephone receiver. Something buzzed on the other end, as an oriental voice picked up the phone. "Yes?"

"Hello, my name is Juliet Burke. I work on an island near Malaysia as a doctor." Juliet stated. "I wanted to ask about a research project that was stationed here in the 1970's, by the name of Dharma Initiative."

"Oh?" The voice sounded puzzled. "Yes. Please hold."

A masculine voice soon surmounted the phone. "Hello?"

"Yes." Juliet said. "I wanted to know about a certain employee sent by Paik industries to an island in the south Pacific. He was sent to the Dharma Initiative in the 1970's for a research trial-"

"How did you come by the information, Ms. Burke?" The man asked hastily.

"Just….putting together a historian's manual to the island's history." Juliet lied. "I believe his name was….Danny Neuko?"

"Danny Neuko was his American name. His real name was Jae Lee." The man on the other line said. "He was sent by Paik industries to see if Dharma was really truly there for research. Paik industries tied bonds with Widmore incorporated to fund a project for the Valenzetti Equation.

"I beg your pardon?" Juliet asked, her pale hand rested on her forehead. "Did you say the Valenzetti Equation?"

"Yes. Developed by Princeton associates, the Valenzetti Equation predicts the end of the human race, if suddenly stricken with infertility in the world. I believe you are associated with the numbers 4-8-15-16-23…" He paused. "And 42?"

"Yes." Juliet said breathlessly. "I am." She hesitated. "Are you still incorporated with Widmore?"

"No." He said bluntly. "Has Ben not told you what the Dharma Initiative was for?"

"The Dharma Initiative was a funded research project. It was financially supported by Paik industries and Widmore and Associates incorporated. After the Cuban Missile crisis, Paik industries teamed up with Princeton University and developed an equation that would predict the end of the human race." Ben said, handing Juliet a cup of tea. "Dharma's job was to change it so that humanity would be given a chance."

Juliet swallowed a sip of the steaming tea. "I thought it was to figure out why the island was unique."

Ben smiled and sneered. "That's it exactly."

"I'm not sure what you mean."

Ben blinked. "The island was the renegade 'cure'. That's what the Dharma Initiative believed. They thought the island was the cure- the solution to the equation. They were going nowhere very quickly- they couldn't even coexist with the island's native inhabitants. It was obvious one side had to go."

"So you made sure that happened-"

"Peik industries stopped funding them. Widmore and Associates commanded them to come up with a disease that could initiate the factors of the Valenzetti Equation- in short, they wanted an infertility virus. That's what the French woman was researching decades ago."

"Rousseau."

"Yes."

"What happened to the virus?" Juliet asked, her eyes vacantly staring down into her tea.

"Naturally, it was destroyed."

"So you don't think that the virus is what's causing the pregnant women to lose control of their immune systems in the third trimester?"

"Absolutely not. It's obviously an auto-immune disease, somehow triggered during the second trimester, developing and acting into the third."

Juliet rubbed her eyes and set them on the kitchen table. "Is it possible that the condition is a bypass, a mutation of the virus?"

"No."

"You certainly are sure of all these things."

"The virus hasn't touched our community."

Juliet cupped her chin in her palm, thinking. She glanced down at her teacup again, and looked at Ben, laden in those ridiculous glasses, anticipated hope shining behind them in sea blue eyes.

"What about Jacob?"

"Jacob?" Ben was surprised where Juliet's train of thought dropped off. "You think Jacob is responsible-"

"I don't know. It's possible."

Ben stared at her. "Everything is possible, Juliet. Which gets us nowhere."

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Danielle creaked the door open to Jacob's cabin. Her moccasins silently tapped the primitive wood floor as she stepped inside. She brushed back a string of wavy brown hair, and gazed around the cabin. It smelt new, laden with odd objects in every corner. Jars of unrecognizable liquid balanced on the windowsill. A picture of a terrier hung on the far wall, next to chains and ropes that were nailed to it's wooden posts.

Danielle breathed out a sigh of relief, and then screamed in suprise, as she looked next to her, and saw a boy, about the age of twelve, sitting on a rocking chair. It creaked, as he rocked back and forth. In his hands, he cupped white ash. He looked straight ahead, not even noticing her there.

"Hello?" Danielle motioned to the little boy. Her hand waved in front of his face, but his brown hair and matching brown eyes only stared wide open at the chest across from him in the tiny cabin.

"Come here, Jack." Said a deep, hoarse voice out of nowhere. The little boy stood up and walked to the chest. Danielle crouched behind the rocking chair, her hair strewn across her face. She was not yet afraid out of her wits, but a row of gooseflesh was silently making it's way down her skin. She could hear her own breaths, and each time she breathed out, she could see a puff of smoke emit from her lips.

"Bring it to me, young Mr. Shepard. There you go, good boy."

The little boy named Jack kneeled at the chest, and rubbed his hands together, showering the white ash all over the chest. Danielle's eyes widened in fear.

"Jack. There is a lady behind the rocking chair. Bring her here, please." The voice was polite, but at the same time, it was like the sound of rusty chains rattling in a brig somwhere. The boy turned around his eyes glowing in the dark cabin. Danielle silently stood up, and creaked over to the chest.

"I 'ere you are zhacob." Danielle said, struggling to pronounce the J.

There was no sound.

Danielle swallowed, wondering whether he simply wasn't there or that she was going mad. She continued.

"I am associated vith ze Dharma Initiative. Ve 'ave been attacked by ze 'ostiles. Ve need your aid." Danielle could feel the hot breath on her ear as she turned around.

"Dharma Initiative." He whispered. "Dharma."

Danielle gasped. The chains on the wall began to shake, and several jars fell over, splinters of glass and goo flying through the air. The little boy's hair stood on end, as he sat crisscrossed on the floor. Finally, the little boy froze, and then spoke.

"You need to move the island, Danielle." He said it prematurely- as though he was possessed. "Move the island. And all will be safe."

"But I don't understand how-"

Little Jack smiled. "Rachael and Ian will know. There is a woman, who is pregnant. She will be the next to last woman to give birth on the island. She is chosen. She will do it and save all." The little boy collapsed, his limp body falling to the wooden floorboards. Danielle kneeled next to him.

"Zhacob! Zhacob!" She screamed out to the cabin. She whiplashed her head in all corners of the tiny cabin, and then looked back to the boy. The boy opened his amber brown eyes.

"Do it, Danielle."

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Ben Linus swatted his way through the jungle. Soaked, bitten and slashed, he pushed a fern behind him, and held his hand to his forehead, shading the perfect noonday sky. Drawing his blue eyes down to the forest floor, he saw Mount Olympus in the distance.

He would find Zeus himself residing in it.

With eager anticipation, Ben leaped over the ring of white ash and stumbled up the ladder, leaving his tranceiver on the forest floor. He heard a gun click somewhere behind him and silently cursed himself for being so ignorant.

"Ben. Nice of you to join the show."

It was Ian Lewis. Ben stepped onto the dusty ground, and raised his hands in reluctant surrender. Rachael poised her gun at his feet, her face filled with silent annoyed concern.

"What are you doing here? Following us?" Ian asked, walking within comfort zone of Ben. "Looking for revenge?" He spat, holding the gun down. Ben panicked behind a calm face. He reached in his back pocket, eager for something. Anything. And then, it appeared.

A telescope. Ben wasn't sure how it had appeared there, but the tiny black tubular telescope poised in his hand.

"What is that?" Ian asked. Ben smiled, his mind racing on his next move. In a swift second, he had Ian pinned to the ground, the telescope poised over his throat. Ian coughed abruptly, as Rachael dropped her gun.  
"What do you want from us?" She cried. "What are you looking for?"

"Jacob. Annie." Ben told her sternly. "Where are they?"

"Annie's dead."

The voice that shattered Ben's spiderwebbed world came from above. Ben turned around, letting go of Ian, and gazed up at the bearer of the worst news.

Danielle.

"She died een childbirth theese morning." Danielle said, floating down to the ground on the ladder. Her cold voice startled Rachael and Ian, who scrambled to thier guns and poised them at Ben. They had never known the extent of Danielle's lying abilities. She said it so mercilessly, so cruelly, that they would have believed it themselves had they not seen Annie in the sand that very morning, balancing a HAM radio magazine that had been salvaged by the boat, on her pregnant stomach, and reading the morse code section.

Ben's mouth tried to form words. "T-that's not possible." He said. "I saw her two days ago- she was fine."

"Zat...vas two days ago, Monsieur Linus." Danielle said. "Zings 'ave changed. You 'ave changed things in mere minutes."

"She was in her third trimester! Nothing could touch her- there was no problem, she should have delivered fine..." He paused, realizing something. "I didn't even..." He sighed breathlessly. "I didn't even see her.."

"Let 'im go." Danielle said to Ian and Rachael. " 'e is a madman now."

Reluctantly, Ian rubbed his throat, glared at Ben, and shuffled back with Rachael. When they were out of sight, he grabbed her arm, letting Danielle go ahead of them for a moment.

"What did she mean by that?" He asked. "That Ben is a madman?"

Rachael sighed. "Don't you see? Do you not realize?"

Ian looked down at Rachael's Dharma boots. His green eyes widened in disbelief. "No."

"Yes."

"You mean he-"

"Yes."

"And she-"

"Yes, Ian."

"And...they?"

Rachael nodded.

Ian wiped the shocked expression off his face and smiled warmly at Rachael. "What would I do without you?" He asked.

"You'd still be on the mainland." She said, half facetiously. "Now- you heard Ben, she's in her third trimester. She's due any day now."

"Do you want me to go back and tell him-"

"No. If she does die in childbirth, and I have reason to believe she might- then he'll kill us all."

"But what about what Jacob said?" Ian remarked. "Danielle said that he prophetcized that Annie has to move the island. "

"I think Danielle's going to try to move the island herself. I told her what she has to do. She's going to make her way up to the Orchid tommorow."

"Oh." Ian said. "Well, if he ever tried to lay a finger on you, Rachael...I'd.." Rachael blushed as she pecked his cheek with a kiss.

"Come on." She urged. "Danielle's going to be on us again. The dictator. " They both smirked.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

_Whoo! Wow- this was fun to write. Please enjoy and review if you read it- if you like it, dislike it, etc. _

_Just to let you all know, I'll be taking a brief hiatus. I'm entering a screenwriting contest for LOST, so I'll be really really busy with the screenplay, since it'll be my first priority. But, have no fear- I'm going to publish chapter 18 (which is like the climax of this whole story) next week. Check out 'LOST: The Musical!" in the meantime- I'll still be working on that. Thank you for reading! :D_

lola


	18. eighteen

eighteen

_lola-write-hand_

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18

Annie Goodspeed lay sprawled out on the white sandy shore when the three came back from the cabin. She abruptly sat up, awkwardly held her knees to her chest, and looked up at them, the redness in her cheeks glowing. Danielle threw down her bag into the sand and kneeled down towards Annie.  
"Annie- zhere is somezing zat needs be done."

Annie smiled vacantly. "The baby." She patted her belly. "Is due soon."

Rachael and Ian exchanged glances. "We need to leave now if we're going to make it before nightfall."

Annie snapped out of her trance. "Where?" She asked.

"The Orchid." Danielle said abruptly. "It's maybe two, three miles from here."

Laughing hysterically, Annie stood up. "I'm almost nine months pregnant, Danielle."

"I can see zat."

**LOST4815162342LOST**

"May I ask why we're going to the Orchid?" Annie asked, glancing at Rachael, who supported her left shoulder. When no response came, she looked over to Ian, who sighed.

"The Orchid was an experimental station- I'm surprised you've heard of it."

"Might I remind you my father was Horace Goodspeed?"

Ian paused. "The Orchid is basically built over a bubble of organic negative material, capable of making an incision in the space time continum."

Rachael giggled. "Thanks for speaking in english, Ian." She turned to Annie warmly. "It's suposedly a time machine."

"So we're going to- what?- go back before the Purge?"

Danielle, who was 10 steps ahead of them, smiled, as Ian replied. "No."

"Then, what?'

Silence. Annie shut her eyes. "I'm not going mad, you know." She added spontaneously. The two Dharma scientists supported her shoulders, as her feet barely hit the intertwined forest floor. After a few hours through the dizzily humid jungle, Rachael spotted tears flowing from Annie's eyes, diluting the muddy water below her feet. Annie saw Rachael, and smiled, wincing. "Contractions." She said simply. After a few moments, she pulled herself from their grasp.

"I can walk, thank you." Annie said to Ian and Rachael, stepping over a patch of wild tigerlilies. She caught up to Danielle, who scowled.

"You shouldn't be valking now, Annie."

"Oh would you stop it? I'm fine. You all think I've gone mad. I wouldn't be surprised if you turned out the daft one after all." Annie touted facetiously. Danielle couldn't help but smile. Suddenly, she gasped, seeing the station open up in the virgin jungle. It was still in construction, with pulleys and levers hoisting half-flying timbers. Setting up camp, Annie plopped down in the courtyard, letting the last rays of sun touch her face as it disappeared over the green glowing mountains of the island. As soon as Rachael and Ian were asleep, arms intertwined, Annie shook Danielle awake.

"Annie- vhat on earth?"

Annie giggled, and then turned serious. "You promised me."

The moon shone on the exposed stomach of Annie. She smiled down at it, and rested her hand on her swollen belly.

"When we were little girls, you promised me you'd always tell me your secrets." She recalled. "I want to know why we're here. I want to know where Ben is." She glanced over at Danielle, who was hidden behind a waterfall of brown hair.

"I know you don't like him, Danielle. But…" She trailed off. "I know this is the end for me. I've been feeling it for awhile. I'm going to have this baby, and then that's the end. And I can only pray that Ben is there when I go." Danielle stared at her friend.

"Annie- don't talk like-"

"You're a woman of science, Danielle." Annie said simply, exhaustedly. She rested her head back on the grass. "You can't deny it. I know you."

Danielle smirked. "And what does that make you, Annie?"

Annie paused. She brushed an amber hair behind her ear and smudged her freckles with tears.

"I'm a woman of faith." She said boldly. "And you're science, and I'm faith, and we're bound to crash. But we both have to nod to the truth." She closed her eyes. "This is it. You know no one's had a baby on this island-"

"Just because Dharma….It's taboo, Annie. Zat's all."

"No. It's not just taboo."

"Zhacob vill heal you."

Annie looked puzzled. "Who's Jacob?"

Danielle sighed, and told Annie everything. About the cabin, every word uttered from the little boy, and finally, the words she didn't wish to say.

"Jacob said that you're ze only one who can move ze island, and save it. And this is vhy ve're here."

Annie looked stunned. She tried to cry, but she stiffened up and cruelly stared at Danielle, letting the silence cascade over her. She closed her eyes and sliced the silence, laughing manically. And for the briefest of seconds, Danielle thought she was mad.

"Danielle." She whispered softly. "I don't think that's going to happen."

Danielle's eyes widened in fear. "Why not?"

Annie searched her friends eyes, as if confessing to her the most simplest of secrets. Gracefully, she settled down, and Danielle leaned over her.

"Because my water just broke." She whispered.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Ben Linus stared at the fern in the distance. He had been staring at its intricate design for over 4 hours, his mind flying off the handle bar. Seeing torches in the jungle, he stood, and brushed himself off, putting on a calm face for the Others.

"Ben." Richard said, stepping out of the jungle. He saw the circle of white ash, and stopped, pressing the Others back. Ben walked quickly out of the circle, and into the jungle.

"What did he say?"

Ben turned around. "He said that we have to find the newborn of the mad woman."

The Others whispered amongst themselves.

"She died in childbirth this morning."

Richard glanced back at them and then looked at Ben, his face savagely cold in the torch light. With a second of silence, Richard put faith in the new leader, and turned around, giving orders to the mob behind him.

"It's alright, Ben….Ben?" Richard set his hand on Ben's shoulder. "Ben?"

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"Ben! Ben!" Annie screamed, as she wriggled in the courtyard. Her hands both gripped two rocks, as she gasped for breath. Rachael kneeled by her side, dabbing her sweaty forehead with a piece of her jumpsuit. Ian stood guard at the gate of the courtyard, rifle in hand.

"Quiet, Annie." Danielle cooed, kneeling by her bent knees. It had been a long labor, lasting into the night. Dawn was quickly coming over the ocean, wiping out the painful early darkness. Annie had struggled boldly and strongly, but now she was in tears.

"Ben! Get Ben." She extended her neck to Ian, who stood post. "Ian! Go get Ben! Please!" She cried out. Ian gazed at Rachael, who heartbreakingly shook her head. "No, Annie. We can't get Ben."

"Something's not right." Annie said, pausing from her hysterical state. She winced again.  
"Poussee!" Danielle yelled in French. "Push, Ahnnie. Push!"

Annie pushed, and then sighed. "Danielle- go get Ben."

"No, he'll kill us all. Now push!"

"What?"

Rachael shook her teary eyes. "Danielle- just tell her! Just bloody tell her!"

Danielle glanced at Annie, with a true concern in her eyes. "I told Ben you died in childbirth, Annie."

Annie shook, as she pushed again. "What?!" She cried aloud. "Why?!"

"Because he's going to kill us, Annie! If you die, he'll kill us all! He'll blame us!"

Annie's fair freckled face winced in pain. She shut her eyes. "Don't let him have her, Danielle. Don't let him have my daughter." Her eyes rolled, dwelling half-opened. She breathed slowly. "Ben." She whispered, just as the bleating cries of an infant poised in her ears. Danielle quickly wrapped the newborn in the extra jumpsuit she found, and placed her in Annie's arms. Annie smiled. "Alexandra." She sighed, her eyes falling shut. Her head tilted to the side and Rachael screamed, bring Ian to her side.

"Annie. Annie!" Rachael shook her, as the baby stayed put in her hands. Danielle put her hand over her mouth. "Queest-ce que j'ai fait?" She said softly. "What have I done?"

The sky overhead began to brighten. The sun was rising, and as Danielle removed the sobbing infant from her limp mother, she realized that the brightness wasn't from the sun. Soon, it overcame all spaces, until it flashed again and again. Ian held Rachael in his arms, as she mourned for a brief second over another loss, to add onto the entire heap that they had both already encountered. Annie shifted, and sat up, her eyes open brightly, as if nothing had happened. She stood up, and grasped the baby from Danielle, who gasped, tugging on Rachael's jumpsuit. Rachael thought she was witnessing a miracle, as the light pulled Annie's hair in all directions. Annie looked new, reborn, as she kissed her baby on the forehead and walked over to the elevator. As the light dimmed, she placed Alexandra into the blinded eyes of Danielle.

"Lie, Danielle. Tell them she's yours. Name her Alexandra. Pretend you were shipwrecked." Danielle's mouth quivered, as she tried to form words. "It's alright." Annie assured. "I understand what I have to do now." She walked over to Rachael and Ian. "Jacob wants you gone." She said simply. "He's on the Hostile's side, and he'll find you. Leave. You'll find your way back, I promise." She locked eyes with Danielle. "If Ben comes, tell him I died in childbirth. Let him see her. Let him hold Alexandra." She said, smiling blissfully at her daughter's name so new on her mouth. "But do not let him raise her. I don't know how I know….but something will happen to her." Annie said softly. "She'll die as a pawn in his game of chess." For a brief moment, Annie rocked her newborn asleep, glancing up at her teary-eyed friend. She gave Danielle a sisterly kiss, and then handed her Alexandra, as she disappeared behind the elevator doors.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

The Orchid was a deep station. Overcome with purpose, Annie dashed out of the elevator as soon as it hit the destination. The dim lights of the station didn't stop her, as she quickly filed into the constructed pod on the far side. She pressed a number code, until she felt the world shift from under her. She spun, and yet, she stood still. Time and space rushed past her, frozen, until she found herself in the artic room.

The wheel.

_So it was true._

Annie left everything behind her, as she quickly grasped the freezing wheel. She pulled it towards her, feeling her legs give out from under her. She kept going, pulling it, pushing it, until it finally sparked, and the room was engulfed in light.

"She's gone." Rachael said softly. She walked over to Danielle, and held the infant, squirming in its small Dharma bundle. "Does she know how to-"

"She knows." Danielle said, haunted. "She knows." Turning to the two of them, Danielle bit her lip. "You 'ave to go." She said. "You 'eard vhat Annie said."

"But how could Annie have talked to Jacob? She didn't even know who he was.."

"This is our home." Rachael said, with an air of melancholy. "We can't leave."

"You have to."

Rachael beamed up at Ian. "We will." Ian said playfully. "In time. We've given those hostiles a run for their money before, who's to say we can't do it again?"

"I like Charlotte." Rachael said, gazing at the baby. "You should have named her Charlotte."

"No. Alexandra." Danielle said respectfully. "She vill alvays be Alexandra."

Ian winked at Rachael, who blushed. With a sudden smile, Danielle hoisted up her bag. "Come on." She said, urging the two. "We 'ave to reach ze north beach before nightfall, if ve vant to avoid ze 'ostiles."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: _No, this isn't the end of the story. There's about 6 more chapters to go. I've decided to expand this into a three-part series. The first book of it is 'Annie' and the sequel will be coming up- more details about the two sequels to this (It will definately include Annie and Ben) in the last few chapters and in the Afterward :D_

_read and review please!_

lola


	19. nineteen

**

* * *

**

nineteen

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

19

It was water. It hit Annie Goodspeed bitterly cold, harsh, like a slap in the face. She opened her eyes to find locks of her hair floating in front of her. She immediately coughed and stood up, finding herself in a white room. Her loose clothes clung to the water as she stepped out of the deep water pit, and she shivered, squinting, trying to find somewhere- some wall, that would assure her of where she was. Grecian columns randomly stood erected in a line, and as Annie walked down the aisle between them, she heard a voice.

"Hello, Annie."

Annie whooshed around, bullets of water emitting from her hair. Robert Alpert smiled at her surprised expression, all dressed in white. She searched his eyes, a look of concern on her face.

"Where am I?" She asked simply, innocently. Robert paused, gazing into her eyes, as she blinked back troubled tears.

"I've watched you grow up, Annie Goodspeed." He said slowly, his eyes vacant. "I saved your mother before you were even born. I had close ties with the Dharma Initiative, and when Ben volunteered to eliminate them, what could I do?"

Annie pushed back her sopping wet hair and blinked. "Why are you telling me this, Robert?"

"Because I've never seen you so brave."

Annie took a step back, impacted. She looked up at Robert as he smiled. "So merciful. So caring of your enemy. Saving them all from-"

"I didn't do it for that reason!" She cried out of nowhere. "I don't give a care if they go off and kill themselves." She said, passion stirring in her voice. "You must know why I did it- for Alexandra, for you, for Ben!" She fell on her knees. "I'm dead now, Robert. Just tell me this is it. I did it for the island." Robert lent her a hand as she wiped her drying eyes.

"You know the person who moves the island can never come back."

"Yes."

"Who told you?"

Annie looked at him. "You know exactly who told me. We can deal with formalities later."

Robert nodded reassuringly.

"I realize I can't go back." Annie said. "I have no other home. And what is there now, for me? Nothing, Robert. But I gave the world to my daughter. I took it away from Widmore…." She smiled warmly. "And I placed it in Alexandra's hands. And Ben…"

Her smiled faded into pain.

"I'll never see Ben again. And the last thing I remember of him was that we disassociated ourselves from each other….to make people doubt anything we ever had…to make the obvious vague, Robert!" She paused, looking into his eyes. "For each other. I told him to leave, so Rachael and Ian wouldn't be suspicious, and then I went into labor and they knew…" She trailed off. "This is the end."

Robert looked up at the white ceiling above him, as if trailing a northern star. "It isn't the end, Annie. It's only the beginning."

"The beginning for you. The island's done with me."

Robert paced. "What if…" He said, wringing his hands. "You could go back?"

"Go back?" The words sounded awkward and foreign on her tongue. Robert's eyes lit up. "Yes, Annie. You can go back- return home. Twenty years of service to the island, Annie…And you can come back. Forever."

Annie's mouth gaped in shock. "T-twenty years?" She stuttered.

"You have two options. You may leave, right now, and go back into the world. Live your life, as usual, and forget this place. But you will never come back." He glanced at her. "Or, you can stop time, for twenty years, and do service for this island. And you may have your freedom back." Annie sat down as he gave her a look of encouragement. "It's your call, Annie." He said. "In twenty years, you could see Ben again, and Alexandra, and Danielle, again…You can keep your twenty-three year old self, and stay young as you do the island's work, and protect everyone on it."

Annie suddenly realized she was cold. She shivered, as she sat down. Robert kneeled next to her. "I moved the island sixty-seven years ago." He said, and a chill rocked down her spine as she realized why the man never aged. She sighed, wanting something to break the silence as she pondered over her options.

"May I have a moment to think this through? I just gave birth to a baby daughter a few moments ago, by the way." Annie said. Robert grinned. "Labor…and then the decision of your life." He handed her a towel of forget-me-not blue, which so brightly contrasted to the white space where time stood still.

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

The winds of the North beach hit Danielle Rousseau. Her hair whooshed past her young face, bitter and pensive. She held Alexandra to her collarbone, shading her from the breeze. Dark clouds dipped over into the last rays of sunlight, and Danielle squinted, hoping to still somehow see Ian and Rachael in the little schooner over the horizon. They had promised to leave the island, under Annie's command, but had silently spoken together as they stretched across the sandy beach to the boat at the Looking Glass station.

Baby Alexandra, swaddled in a Dharma Initiative jumpsuit, stirred silently in Danielle's arms. Danielle gazed down at Annie's daughter, a brief smile spreading on her face. The baby was beautiful; eyes wide open, revealing a dark shade of the deepest blue. Tufts of deep brown hair sprouted at her head, and she reached for Danielle's finger, wrapping her miniscule hand around it, gripping it tightly, never letting go.

And that's when she saw the smoke. Like a chimney pollutant, rising high into the sky, Danielle remembered Annie's revelation.  
_"You have to lie to them, Danielle." _

Danielle gulped as she quietly leaped into the jungle, hoping to find some place for shelter for her and the baby. She stationed herself near the dilapidating schooner that she had crashed in months before. It now was a great mess of rotten boards, thrusting in and out to sea, weaving between the sharp flint rocks that rose out of the ocean like thorns.

When night fell, they came.

Danielle had found herself a little patch of leaves between two great trees. She lay down, sprawling her jacket over the baby, hiding it in a pseudo womb for the time being. She saw them before they saw her- camouflaged in suits of green, the Others had come for Alexandra. There were near a dozen of them, stationed on the North beach, inspecting the wreckage of the schooner, walking around with rifles over the sandy shore. Danielle had woken up, seeing combat boots inches away from her eyelids. Letting a silent gasp escape her lips, she silently grasped the newborn, and scooted farther into the jungle. Alexandra giggled beneath her jumpsuit swaddling. Danielle's eyes widened in the most terrible fright she had felt since seeing the doctor at the neighboring island keel over with a bullet of blooming red in his back. An Other elbowed his companion.

"Didja hear that?"

"Yeah. I think we're getting close."

Danielle shut her eyes, placing her hand gently over the baby's lips. The silence, muffled only by the stomping of the combat boots in the distance, was suddenly pierced by Alexandra's warbling cries. Danielle abruptly stood up, and ran, barefooted, through the jungle, until shards of glass stuck into her feet. Ignoring them, she ran until she fell in the sand, the baby tumbling to her side.

"Hello, Miss Rousseau."

Danielle stood up. The man who gazed at her was cold-looking, with piercing eyes and a pot belly. She took his hand and stood up.

"Do not take Aleexandra." She said sternly. The man put up his hand.

"You forgot your shoes." He said, motioning to the bloody sand footprints etched along the beach. Danielle plopped down on the beach, crying out in pain as if she had suddenly realized.

"Take me!" She cried, trying to paste a bit of insanity in her words. "I 'ave been shipwrecked!" She pointed to the wreckage in the distance. "My 'usband eez dead- my daughter eez 'ere!" She held up her daughter, gasping as a man behind him seized the baby. "No!" She cried aloud hysterically, finding the hatchet in her back pocket. With intense, insane anger, she plunged the hatchet into the back of the man who held her baby. He fell over into the sand as the others gathered around him. After a fit of coughing and then silence, they all aimed their rifles at Danielle with horrible sick fear, who stared at them all at once.

"Stop." Said the man who had helped her up. "Ben said specifically to take the baby."

"Ben." Danielle whispered eerily. She screamed, standing up, and attempted to punch the others as they filed into the jungle. One turned to her.

"You mad woman- do you not see that this is how it's going to be? We have guns. You don't. We can kill you at the drop of a pin."

Danielle shook with fury. "I have something more powerful than any weapon of yours!" She lunged to him, as he shot her in the leg. Wincing in pain, Danielle cried out false sanity into the darkening sky, as she heard the cries of Alex fade further and further away into the cascading darkness.

**LOST4815162342LOST**

Dainelle could hear the stream from far away. The veins of it squished in the mud under her bloody bare feet, that dragged across the forest floor. She brought her heavy brown eyes up to the river, and watched the cool water reflect a wrinkled moon in its waves. The river flowed from the estuaries. It floated around the palmetto fronds dipping into the shallow waters. Danielle wasn't honestly concerned about its beauty or nature at the moment- but moreover, who's water supply it provided for.

The Others. Ben.

Pulling herself to the water's edge, Danielle felt that she was walking the tightrope of sanity. She pulled out the vial of the long-forgotten virus, and lunged herself over to the banks of the stream.

She had warned Ben. From that first day she had been the thirteen year old shipwrecked girl, trudging out of the jungle, half-dead, Danielle had hated Ben. Annie was her sister now, and Ben had killed Annie. The logic was perfect, although her conscience silently muttered the bias of it in the background of her mind.

_He deserves it._

Two drops. Maybe three. And the entire Other population could be wiped out with each and every pregnancy. She knew the horror of it all. All the victims, the deaths, the sadness. A reminder to the one who had brought it upon them in the first place. But she examined the grudge behind it all.

_Benjamin Linus has sealed his fate. _

The words echoed in her ears like whispers. Being alone for a few days, let alone decades, could do things to one. She remembered Annie, the Dharma Initiative. Her parents, her neighbors. All wide eyed, staring into the eyes of death. A cause so zealous couldn't go undermined. She turned the vial upside down, draining it into the Others water supply. A drop for everyone Ben had caused pain to- and all those to come.A horrible laugh that Danielle couldn't even recognize escaped her lips, and she knew, for a brief moment, what it felt like to be Benjamin Linus.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: _And, as in the words of Benjamin Linus- I have a counter purposal. Listening? You write reviews. I make more story. So write those reviews, please! Even if you just write 'good' or 'horrible'- a one word review- it means SO MUCH! Thanks! _

_In the meantime, I'll be keeping chapter 20 hostage for a while until I get some more reviews! Sorry!_

_lola_


	20. twenty

**twenty**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

_20_

"Shhh.." The voice of Ben Linus cooed to the sobbing baby, rocking her back and forth in his unfamiliar paternal arms. A bar of light from the sidewalk light gently fell on the baby's forehead, where tiny locks of brown hair stuck in the humidity.

It had been a strange sight, seeing the group make it's way down the hill from the tree line, baby in hand. He could swear that the maddening cries of Danielle still struck each star, making them all shudder in their shining spheres.

But he had cried too.

He had asked for a moment, an hour alone, to mull over the next book that was to take place at the first book club meeting of the Others. They had slid a Stephen King novel in Ben's mail slot, and he made up an excuse. After flipping through the first pages of it, Ben threw it in the wastebasket, and hurried to the back room, where the baby was sleeping.

"The mad woman told us her name was Alexandra." One of the men had said. Ben could only hope that Alexandra was the intended name by Annie, and immediately called her so.

He cradled the newborn in his arms, and felt tears prick his eyes. She was beautiful, a vision with brown tufts of hair as soft as rabbit's fur and bold blue eyes. Sitting on the bed, he looked over to his left, imagining for the briefest moment that Annie was sitting next to him, her arm on his shoulder, the other around the baby. He closed his eyes, rocking the baby side to side, and let a gentle sob escape his lips. Setting the baby in her cradle, he kneeled down at the dresser, and dug deep into the bottom drawer. Under a bathrobe and a walkie-talkie, he found the doll. Forever he had kept it, sometimes setting it on his nightstand, peering into those forever frozen childlike eyes.

There was a knock at the door. Composing himself, he stood up, and tiptoed out of the room. Opening the door, he saw that it was Goodwin's fiancée, Harper, who stormed into his house. Ben looked puzzled. "Harper…can I help you?"

"What is going on?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

Harper pressed her face formidably close to his. "I hear screaming. In the jungle. What's going on?"

"Nothing- Harper, you need to go talk to Goodwin-"

"My fiancée is as tight lipped as anyone. I saw the baby." She pressed on. "Who's baby is it? Did you take it from that screaming woman?"

"Yes."

"You took the baby from her mother?"

"Alexandra's mother died in childbirth."

"Then who is she?!" Harper cried, pleading for answers. Ben sighed, feeling a deep pit in his throat. "She was her friend."

"I can't let you take the baby…You're going to do experiments on it or something."

Ben held his palms out to her. "Harper, you're a therapist. You're job-"

"Don't tell me what my job is- I know! Excuse me for looking out for someone else. You could never understand that that baby has a home, a life, and you're going to just-"

"I would kill everyone on this island before I even hurt one hair on Alexandra's head." Ben said coldly, with a bittersweet fatherly air. Harper stared at him.

"Who was the mother of the baby?" She asked simply.

"Annie Goodspeed."

"And the father?"

The door slammed shut on Harper as she finished the question. In a moment, it abruptly opened, revealing a pale Ben Linus.

"Alexandra is my daughter. Her mother is gone and now, she is all I have…" He paused. "So please, turn around, and go home. Goodnight, Harper."

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"Harper!" Harper Stanhope heard the muffled sounds of someone calling for her over the swoosh of the helicopter's blades. She adjusted her headset, just as Ben came, walking quickly over the windy hill. Many of the Others had heard of the Mercenaries and the Freighter and had decided to further themselves as far away as possible from them, lining up by the old Dharma helicopter, poised to flee to the neighboring island. Harper was one of them.

"I'm leaving, Ben." She shouted over the intense noise of the nearly ascending motor.

"Go, Harper…I just have one question." Ben said, handing her the Stephen King novel he had forgotten so long ago. "What did you tell her? What did you tell Juliet about Annie?"

"Everything." Harper cried. The single word answer hit Ben hard, as he turned around and walked down to Otherton. John, Hurley and Sawyer were sure to track him these days when they weren't busy playing a round of Risk.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: _Sorry this was so short. Still need reviews over here. : Please please please. I'm getting kind of desperate. _

_lola_


	21. one & twenty

**twenty-one**

_lola-write-hand_

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**21**

Henrietta Wilson screamed in labor over the operation table, her bright red hair strewn across her perspirating face. Moments later, she was silent, the heart monitor keeping on a steady line. She was dead.

"I want an autopsy in fourteen hours." Ben said, dropping the Stephen King novel he was reading. Going to it right away, the doctor slipped the white sheet off from over Henrietta's lifeless body and began the procedure.

"Nothing." The doctor said hopelessly, scratching his bald head in a puzzled stare. "Nothing wrong with her. She was perfectly healthy." He sighed. Ben looked over the charts, as the doctor pointed to one grid on it. "Although…never mind."

Ben immediately glanced at the doctor with bulging blue eyes. "What?"

Hesitating, the doctor grabbed the black and white typed charts. "She had a low supply of hemoglobin." He looked at Ben. "But you don't think-"

"That's exactly what I think." Ben said. "Hemoglobin. Hemoglobin." He said the word over and over as he fiddled through the drawers of the doctor's desk. "Do you have any records from the 1968 exhibition at the Hydra station?" He asked urgently. Pulling out a drawer, he found it was locked.

"If you mean the virus expedition, then you've got it right there." The doctor replied, motioning to the locked file cabinet.

After retrieving the files on Danielle's research team project, Ben stood, laden in the wire rimmed glasses, the autopsy doctor over his shoulder.

"Producing a virus that induced as nothing, except for the harmful side effect of low hemoglobin in the blood stream. Subject suffocated, and then died, off spring in womb…" The doctor read.

"No." Ben said. "That virus was destroyed in 1972. It's too far a stretch." He set down the file and looked at the doctor. "We need another test subject." He said. "Find Sabine."

Ben watched through silent glass as the doctor spoke to Sabine and Ethan. Sabine watched intently, her blue eyes wide with loyalty. Her husband, Ethan, looked worried as the doctor motioned side effects with his hands. Sabine finally nodded, glanced at Ethan and left, as the doctor walked out of the room.

"She agreed."

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

Juliet smiled at Sawyer as they both jumped off the coast guard's ship. She gazed at the San Francisco skyline, finally seeing civilization that she hadn't seen forever.

"Hey." Sawyer nudged her. "You going to see your sister, finally?"

Juliet closed her eyes. Opening them, she found tears in them. "My sister died two weeks ago, Sawyer. I'm going to Portland." With that, she walked off the dock and onto firm ground of the continent that would never shift beneath her. Sawyer only gazed, mouth agape as she turned around.

"I have some friends to visit." She called. "Thanks for everything!"

The Portland house was quaint, like a birdhouse in a row of tasteful middleclass homes. Juliet quickly fixed her ribbon and knee length periwinkle skirt, and rang the doorbell.

The springy wreath pulled back on the jade green door to reveal a blonde haired woman with grey eyes. She smiled, her wrinkles aligning on her face.

"Ian!" She called. "We seem to have a visitor."

"And, she just….moved the island? Just like that?"

"Just like that." Rachael looked up at Ian and beamed as Juliet set her tea down on the coffeetable. "She was a wise girl. Pretty too. And in love, but" She tapped her head. "She had sense. She had a good head on her shoulders."

Ian changed the subject. "Charlotte found the island, didn't she?"

"Yes." Juliet smiled purely.

He swelled with pride. "That's my girl."

Standing up, Juliet nodded to both of them. "Thank you so much." She said, wringing her hands. "I just always wanted to know."

Rachael laughed. "Well darling, next time don't let a side comment take you on another adventure like that!"

Juliet bit her lip, thinking of what had started it all.

"_You look just like her." _

She turned to leave, her hand fixed on the clean doorknob. Suddenly, she turned around, eyeing them both seriously.

"If Annie moved the island…" She began. "Then what happened to her? Where is she now?"

Rachael smiled, glanced at Ian, and stood up.

"Well, well." She said, winking. "I guess we'll just have to see."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another short chapter! But, short and sweet, I think. I'll update soon. **

** By the way, I've decided to make this a series. The second one will premiere June 30th. Hope I'll have enough people to like it and post reviews! :D **

**thanks! NOW REVIEW THE CHAPTER ABOVE, SIL VOUS PLAIT! (Please)**

**lola**


	22. one & twenty continued

**twenty-one (continued)**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

Juliet sat on the bench, waiting for the bus to take her to Sacramento. From there, she decided, she would fly back to Flordia. Her life had abandoned her, and all the people in it were now gone. The cars all backed up at a red light, and she could faintly hear "Downtown" playing in an old Lincoln roadster. It almost brought tears to Juliet's already flushed face.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" A young lady asked. Juliet hastily wiped her tears and looked up at the woman, laden in a baby blue dress with a matching headband. Her golden locks cascaded over her shoulders, as she set her handbag down on the bench. "Portland sure is beautiful this time of year- a perfect place to forget everything. To leave it all behind."

She looked like she was right out of the sixties.

The woman caught Juliet looking at her outfit. She pretended not to notice, glancing down at the sidewalk, splattered with bird droppings and discarded gum. Her bold blue eyes gazed up at the sea, and reminded Juliet of another pair of those same eyes that almost brought a gasp to her lips.

"You have to go back, Juliet." The woman said, tone completely flipped, eyeing Juliet, whose face was hysterical in horror. "It's the only way. There's nothing for you here."

Juliet shook her head. "It's gone. You're gone. I'm going crazy-"

"Hey, lady- who are you talking to?" The bus driver had pulled up, seeing Juliet talking to thin air at her left.

Juliet looked up. "I have to go." She gulped to herself, standing up on shaky legs and stepping onto the bus. She felt a hand pull her back and turned around.

"Find Ben." The woman said. She then turned around, smiled pleasantly, and sat on the bench. Juliet turned to the bus driver, who was scratching his head.

"Lady- just get on the bus." He said, almost frightened. Juliet avoided the stares of the people on board, and sat by herself, looking out the window at the mysterious lady in blue. As the bus roared, picking up speed, Juliet kept her eyes on the woman.

"Goodbye, Emily Linus." She whispered inaudibly, and sat back in her seat, terrified.


	23. two & twenty

twenty-two

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

22

"Quick- I need the scalpel!" A doctor cried, over the comatose body of Sabine. She was seven months due, and now, as she lay out on the operation table, the doctors began to brace themselves for a c-section. Ethan, who looked luridly emotionless, was covered by a medical mask that soaked up the stray tears that happened to fall as he watched her heart beat drop, lower and lower, until one of the head surgeons cursed. "Stay with us!" To an almost lifeless Sabine. The doctor turned around to Ethan, just as the heart monitor hit zero.

As Ethan attempted to revive her, Ben stood up in the room overlooking the surgery. For once, Harper actually saw him, mouth agape in surprise.

"No."

He had seen Sabine's muscles contract, almost witnessed the hemoglobin vanish from her bloodstream.

"The virus." He whispered, with sudden epiphany. Running out of the room, he didn't stop to comfort Ethan, who now had a wife and child to bury.

"Danielle! Danielle!" Ben yelled, almost like a madman. "Where are you, Danielle?"

Danielle Rousseau looked up from the doll she had been carving. Could it truly be? A thousand thoughts rushed through her mind as she immediately ran towards the voice, rifle in hand. She crept behind a tree.

"Danielle..come…out…now!"

And Danielle did, gun poised at Ben. She laughed manically, as he reluctantly held his arms up. "Where's Alex?" She asked, looking around to make sure Ben was alone.

"Can I suggest a counterproposal, Danielle?"

Danielle sneered. "Trying to reason vith a mad voman, are you?"

Ben blinked. "I know what you did, Danielle. And if you can stop it, I'll give you Alex back."

"Vhat are you talking about?" Danielle asked, adjusting the rifle. "I 'ave a purposal for you, Ben. I shoot you vit this rifle, I storm ze camp, I kill everyone, and zen I take Alex." The gun clicked. "And it all starts here."

A shot fired through the air. Ben shut his eyes, kneeling down, waiting for the pain. Instead, he could see Danielle, shocked at her bleeding hand that had knocked the rifle right out of her arms. She gazed above Ben's head.

It was Richard.

Doctor Alpert, still laden in bloody scrubs, retrieved the rifle, dropping it to the forest floor. He looked all around him, at the traps set up above his head.

"Where did you put the virus, Danielle?" He asked. Ben looked over at him, with amazed eyes. "How do you know?" He asked curiously.

Richard ignored him. "Danielle- we need to know what you did with the virus."

Danielle smiled. "I'm not crazy…Ivonically, you ah, Monsieur Alpert, for following zees man." She pointed to Ben, and then casually said, "I put ze virus in ze water supply. Multiplying, it vill now occupy zat stream leading to the water filters for 48 years. Everyone eez infected vith it. You do ze math."

Richard gazed at her, with an expression of two parts anger and one part curiosity. He looked over to Ben, who had a composed horrified stare on her.

**LOST4815162342LOST**

"Do you know what this means?" Ben asked Richard, as they both quickly paced through the jungle. "There are 10 pregnant women in our community."

"We need to find the DOC." Richard said quickly. "Tomorrow, I'll have 3 or 4 of them come with me to the Staff. We need to test everyone's water supply and then-"

"That doesn't matter." Ben said stoically, stopping cold. "Everyone's infected. The only way to solve this is to fight fire with fire."

Richard searched his eyes. "Meaning?"

"I'm going to find a doctor."

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"Hello, Juliet." Ben said, offering his hand to the blonde lady who stepped out of the submarine at the end of the docks. She looked bedraggled, but just enough to leave her still beautiful. "My name is Benjamin Linus."

She nodded. "Juliet Burke."

He had set her to work immediately, just as 10 women had died over the past 5 years as he had searched for her. Hearing of her miraculous cure for her sister's infertility, he had immediately tapped the shoulder of the satellite moderator and whispered in his ear. "Find her." The moderator nodded.

Juliet examined several test tubes, writing things down on a stack of stapled papers. Ben sat down. "Looks like difficult work."

She smiled, not acquiesced enough to send off the polite face. "Yes." She said, flipping over several pieces of paper, as Ben gazed at her intently.

**LOST4815162342LOST**

"So, how is it here?"

Juliet looked up from her wringing hands at the therapist, Harper Stanhope, whose sky-high eyebrows gave her the look of a surprised brunette deer.

"It's good…Beautiful island." She mumbled. "Ben treats me well."

"Well of course he treats you well…you look just like her."

A confused expression crossed Juliet's face. "Who?"

Harper chewed on her gum. Juliet looked just like Emily. Who else could she possibly look like. And then she remembered: Annie Goodspeed, the little girl from the picture.

"You look like Annie." Harper spat. "You've never heard of Annie Goodspeed?"

"No."


	24. three & twenty

**twenty-three**

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

23

Ben played the piece from Rachmaninoff on the old piano in the living room. He could hear mumbling grunts in the other room, filled with strangers playing Risk.

It had been 17 years. 17 years of leadership, of perfect seclusion in a bubbled utopia, only to be torn apart the day Oceanic 815 crashed. And now? He smirked, taking his hands off the keys to pause. Now, he was a prisoner in his own home.

John Locke burst through the door. "What's code 14 J?" He asked, as Sawyer appeared at his right hand. The phone was repeating something in the other room. Ben stood up immediately.

"Where did you hear that?"

"On the phone-" Locke motioned to the other room as Ben quickly thought 48 steps ahead of himself. They would have to avoid the treeline, absolutely. He snatched the hidden rifle from under the piano bench.

"We have to go- if we hurry we can make it to the other house- there's more coverage."

He quickly ran ahead of them both, making preparations. "One of my people's been captured."

"What does that-"

Ben quickly interrupted Locke. "They're here." He said, looking to Hurley, and then back to Sawyer, and finally at Locke. With a swift step he was out the door, destined for the other house on the east side. Sawyer had said something about Claire- something about Alex as well. As they barricaded the door, Ben shut his eyes, thinking of Alex. She had grown up from an infant into a little girl into a teenager who suddenly had her own perceptions, her own views, her own opinions. She was, although strangely resembling of Rousseau, beautiful, dragging Karl, that teenaged, over hormonal boy into the picture, seeing as though he followed her like a lovesick puppy everywhere she went.

He had sent the three of them to the Tempest Dharma station- through the same cavern he had sent Alex's mother, nearly two decades ago.

Rousseau hated him. She always had. He rubbed his shoulder, remembering when he had encountered her the second time, with the survivor she had kept hostage. He never would have believed a crossbow could hurt so tremendously. Still, as promised, he told Alex that her mother was dead- only to change it soon when the Other's eyebrows rose in question when Rousseau was discovered. If Rousseau truly wasn't Alex's mother, then who was? Did that mean that everything their highly-esteemed leader had told them was a lie? Ben couldn't let that happen- so he allowed them to kiss and cry, thinking that they had found everything in each other that rainy day on the docks.

"They have your daughter."

Those words echoed in Ben's mind like a curse. He tried to keep calm, as he extended a shaky hand to pick up the buzzing transceiver. He tried to remember everything about the mercenary that he could, and skillfully slyly paraded it as if he had nothing to lose. The mercenary, in return, threatened him.

"If you don't get out here." He breathed into the transceiver. "Then I'm going to kill your daughter, Mr. Linus."

Ben swallowed. The mercenaries would only risk it if she was important to him. He started a rant. "She means nothing to me. She's only a pawn…..nothing more."

Alex squeezed her eyes shut as tears rushed out them. She could feel the cold metal caliber kissing her head, a hand tugging at her mass of dark hair. Like a rag doll, the mercenary threw her towards him.

"She's only a pawn…..nothing more." She heard it on the transceiver.

_Annie turned to Rousseau. "Don't let him have her." She said. "She'll die in her father's games of chess. Don't let Ben have Alexandra." _

The shot rung out through the air as Alex fell, dead. Ben stared, mouth agape, at his lifeless daughter who now lay face down in the mud. The mercenary smirked, like a playground bully, and walked off. Ben could hear whispers of amateur plans of escape going off behind him like fireworks, but he could only focus his mind on her. He tried to keep the tears within as he remembered what Rousseau had said.

_Annie said that Alex will die if you raise her. You'll kill her. _

Ben blinked, looking away. "He changed the rules." He said coldly. The survivors that all stared at him were horrified, excluding Sawyer, who sneered behind the curtained barricade. Ben pulled himself back into reality, thinking steps ahead, as he disappeared into the coat closet.

Annie's revelation had come true.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: _Extremely discouraged over here. Hope it doesn't sound like it in my writing. If you read this, please click_ _'submit review to the lower left hand side. Like I said, it's so discouraging when no one says ANYTHING about the last 3 chapters. Please. I've given you this story, now please- just a little feedback over here! If you READ it, REVIEW it! : _

_: _

_lola_


	25. four & twenty

twenty-four

_lola-write-hand_

* * *

24

"Where are we going?" An observant John Locke asked, as he, Ben and Hurley trudged through the jungle.

"Rousseau's quarters."

"You mean, the French chick?" Hurley asked, stopping in his tracks. "The dead French chick?"

"No the other one." Ben said sarcastically. "Come on- we have to get a move on quickly."

"But…Jacob said to move the island." Locke said. "Why are we going over there?"

"You'll see." Ben replied, jumping hastily over a log.

Danielle's quarters were nothing but a makeshift cabin, reluctantly strewn together with twine and gasoline tubs. Inside, there was a metal springs bed connected to a battery, along with her own mess of a bed and several pages strewn across the dirty floor. Ben hastily went through drawers, looking for it. He blinked, when finding one that was locked.

"Can I get something to break this open with?" He asked. Hurley and Locke both looked at him as if he had gone mad. "Please?"

Locke disappeared behind a curtain of tarp, and then reappeared, pitchfork in hand.

"Will this work?"

Ben stared at it, and then remembered the strain of time. "Sure." With help from Locke, the two immediately were able to open the drawer, to find a leather bound book inside, a rope of twine snaked around it. Ben quickly sawwed it off. "Anyone know French?" He asked quickly, looking around. Locke and Hurley only shook thier heads. "I can make out this word...this letter." Ben looked up. "I'm not exactly fluent."

"Ben!" Locke said immedaitely. "We need to get to the Orchid."

"Yes it is, and we're taking a bypass. We have time."

"Hey. Maybe Shannon could help you." Hurley said, caught in a daze. Locke looked at him strangely. "Shannon's dead, Hugo."

"No. She standing right there." Hurley pointed to the ray of light beaming from a crack in the cabin. Ben and Locke exchanged glances.

"She said to put the diary on the table." Hugo went on, eyes vacant. "And she'll translate it for you."

"Why?"

"Because that's how it's supposed to be...I guess."

With a doubtful look, Ben sat the open notebook on the table, just so that the light could shine on it. Whispers began to revolve around the cabin, and Hugo beamed. "Dude. She'll do it." He narrowed his eyes and strained his neck, as if to listen, and immediately began sputtering words.

"Today is May the twenty-third, 1988. I have found the regiments of the old boat. There were no survivors. We met up with Rachael and Ian, two of the Dharma Initiative survivors. They told us what happened. She didn't believe it. I heard her crying all night. She told me it was just very difficult contractions. She should know better- I know the real reason she's crying." Hugo paused. "May the twenty-eighth, 1988. She had her baby today, and named her...the word is scribbled out...Rachael and Ian told her what must be done, and they took her to the Orchid. She was reluctant, but when I told her he would die along with her daughter, she agreed. Now she's gone."

Locke glanced over at Ben, whose eyes were nearly filled to the brim with tears. He shut them. "That's enough Hurley. That's all we needed to know."  
"We? I don't even understand who they're talking about." Locke pointed out. "Who had thier baby?- you're not saying Alexandra is-"

"What we need to do is get to the Orchid." Ben said quickly, walking out of the makeshift habitation. "We've already wasted enough time here."

"I thought you were looking for something."

"I found it."

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

"Ben- what were you thinking?"

An exhausted Benjamin Linus flung metal containers into the Orchid Station's negative energy space. He wiped the blood off his forehead, and went on."Sometimes, good strategic decisions get contradicted by bad emotional responses." Ben paused. "I'm sure you'll do much better than I ever did." A lifeless, bloody Michael Keamy lay crumpled on the floor, the knife that took his life still clutched in Ben's hand.

"What are you doing?" Locke asked, like a curious, terrified child. Ben shut the doors to the energy space. "I'd duck if I were you." He said, crouching behind the table. Locke joined him, as the negative space immediately blew to bits. Rising, Ben hastily made his way to the closet, snatching a parka and quickly skimming over Danielle's old diary pages.

"Why are you putting that on?"

"I'm going somewhere cold."

"And where's mine?"

Ben paused, staring at Locke. "You don't need one, because you're not coming with me."

"Oh yes I am." Locke said with determination. Ben put his hand up. "Jacob told you what to do. He didn't tell you how."

"And why should that matter-"

"Because he wants me to suffer the consequences." Ben said, glancing over the metal peices strew across the floor. With an air of melancholy, he gave his last wish. "So I want you to take the elevator and go on up. My people will be waiting 2 miles east of the Orchid..Ready, willing and able."

Now it was Locke's turn to speak. "Why? After everything, why are you sacrificing yourself?"

"Why?" Ben sighed. "Why?...There was nothing before her, John. There'll be nothing after her."

"I'm sorry about your daughter-"

"I'm not talking about my daughter." He moved a metal bin out of the way of the door, and crept in. "I'm sorry I made your life so miserable." Locke opened his mouth to say something just as Benjamin Linus disapeared into a dirt tunnel.

LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST

After meeting the Others at the base camp, Locke whispered to Richard. "We need to go get Rousseau. She's lying dead in the jungle."

Richard offered a look of sympathy. "That's very kind of you.." He said. "But I really don't think it's necessary."

"It is necessary. He loved her...Ben...loved her." The words sounded strange on Locke's wrinkled mouth. Ben never loved anyone.

"He didn't love her, John."

"He told me...that he did."

"So," Richard asked with an air of cruel humor. "Benjamin Linus said, at his parting words, that he loved Danielle Rousseau."

"No. He said 'there's nothing before her and there's nothing after her.'"

"Her. A vague pronoun, don't you think? Much like the diary you found of Rousseau's, all those "her's" and no name mentioned."

Locke looked at Richard, feeling like a child who was fretting over a meaningless dead bird in the driveway. "I just wanted his wishes-"

"He's not going to die, John. He's moving the island. That's not an immediate sentence of death." Richard corrected. "He's no saint...but I promise you he'll be fine."

Locke nodded as Richard went on. "Now...about those mercenaries."

**LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST4815162342LOST**

It was a wheel.

Benjamin Linus quickly bandaged the wound on his arm he had befallen after slicing it on the old diliplated ladder. The wheel was icy, and as he broke it with the metal bar, a thousand thoughts went through his head.

'So this is looking at the face of death.' He said to no one.

Instead, he now knew the truth. She hadn't died, at least not in childbirth. She had moved the island- dissapeared. And now? Now, he was like Sayid, searching for a woman that should be dead. A woman that perished with his last memory of her, a pregnant woman, scuttling out of the jungle scrambling to get her clothes on so that the Dharma survivors wouldn't be suspicious. She had died in his memory almost seventeen years ago. And the last scrap of memory, Alexandra, was dead.

It was his fault.

He used the last of his fleeing strength to turn the wheel. To finally turn the tables on everyone- dead Rousseau, Widmore, everyone. It was done, finished. And as a bright light engulfed him, he smiled. Almost.

And then Ben was in a light room. His eyes shone almost as totally blue, since the blinding light dialated his pupils to nearly nothing. He had to squint to try and find the walls- the floor, the ceiling- anything in the infinite room of white. For a moment, the pain in his arm seemed to vanish. Ben felt as if he were floating in a sea, and as he stood up, he could see Richard Alpert standing merely feet in front of him.

"Hello, Ben."

Ben squinted. "Where are we?"

"I was suprised Jacob didn't tell you."

"Along with other things. It's the end of my age...the beginning of another." He sighed. "I did it."

"And now, what will you do?"

He smirked. "I always have a plan, don't I?" The catch phrase, although, sounded flat and cold. He didn't have a plan. Tears pricked at his eyes. "What happened to her, Richard?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Annie. Annie moved the island- where is she?"

"I'm right here, Ben." The voice was distant, as though someone was speaking on an intercom. In seconds, he could hear soft footfalls behind him, and he turned around to see her walk to Richard's side. It was her. Truely, marvelously her. She hadn't changed- she was the same youth he had known. Her deep brown eyes gazed at him, rivers of dark hair falling over her shoulders. Annie's baby bump was absent, and she kept a stoic gaze on him, letting it melt into a painful, heartbreaking smile.

"Annie Goodspeed...meet Benjamin Linus." Richard looked from her to him, and back. Annie snapped out of her gaze and looked at Richard. "I think you made an error." She said.

"Did I?"

"You did." She said softly."My name is Annie Linus." Annie stayed in her place, although Richard could picture her running up to Ben, wrapping her lonely arms around Ben in an embrace. Instead, she merely beamed, standing barefoot like the little girl she once had been, freckles carelessly thrown across her face.

She was beautiful.

"You have an option, Ben." Richard said, glancing over at Ben. Ben looked like a different person. His stoic face had seemed to melt as the warm tears fell. His eyes were compassionate, filled to the brim with joy that was only seen like a fenced backyard- only briefly viewed through a small crack or hole in the fence. Now, the barriers were gone. He had walked the tightrope of reality, and finally fallen into apathy. He was frightened to realize that he no longer cared of anything else but her. And then he found himself- Benjamin Linus- with options.

"One. You can leave. Go out into the real world, live your life. Forget this island ever existed and start over..."Richard paused. "Or- you can do service for this island, for 20 years, and return. Work through time- never age. Prevent death, distruction...provide a new life..Love her again."

Ben's smile faded. "20 years?" He questioned. Annie nodded sadly. "I've been here for 17. In three years, I'm free." She said.

"However." Richard looked at the two, who now exchanged anxious glances. "There is something you could do for the island. Something that could take years off that sentence. It would put fate in it's place, rewrite history..help the island do something it can't do itself."

Ben gripped Annie's frosty hands. "What? What can I do?"

Richard narrowed his eyes, an untracable frown and smile crossing his face. He removed two stones from his pocket- one that fit in with the infinite white room, the other completely compromising it, sticking out as black. Suddenly, a blonde woman who resembled Juliet walked in. Ben noticed her immediately from the picture, although he had never called her by her assumed title. She smiled at him, her blonde hair cascading over her blue dress. She stood by Richard, and looked at the black and white backgammon peices. Looking up, she whispered one thing.

"End John Locke."

* * *

FIN

??

_AUTHOR'S END NOTE: That's all folks! _

_WOW- By far, this was the most fun and rewarding fanfiction I've ever written. Seriously. _

_First and foremost, I want to thank my wonderful reviewers- you guys are the best! I really couldn't have done this without your kind words and good ideas!_

_I planned it out, I went through with it, and now I can only look forward. _

_If you were thinking 'sequel!'...You're right. In a few weeks, I'll be coming out with a sequel entitled 'Emily'. It's the story of Emily Linus and her Dharma Initiative experience. Plenty of Ben, Annie, Rachael, Ian and the whole gang! :D_

_Peace out- (Oh, and readers- you still have to review this chapter! Gotcha, haha!)_

_'we can do all things through Christ' _

_lola_


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